dyed yea rather that is risen again And Christ was both delivered for our sins and is risen again for our justification implying to us that as it is in the principal so it is in the correspondent our sins indeed are potentially pardoned when they are marked out for death and crucifixion when by resolving and fighting against sin we dye to sin daily and are so made conformable to his Death but we must partake of Christs Resurrection before this Justification can be actual when we are dead to sin and are risen again unto righteousness then as we are partakers of his Death so we shall be partakers of his Resurrection saith S. Paul that is then we are truly effectually and indeed justified till then we are not He that loveth Gold shall not be justified saith the wise Bensirach he that is covetous let his Faith be what it will shall not be accounted righteous before God because he is not so in himself and he is not so in Christ for he is not in Christ at all he hath no righteousness in himself and he hath none in Christ for if we be in Christ or if Christ be in us the Body is dead by reason of sin and the Spirit is life because of righteousness For this the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that faithful thing that is the faithfulness is manifested the Emun from whence comes Emunah which is the Hebrew word for Faith from whence Amen is derived Fiat quod dictum est hinc inde hoc fidum est when God and we both say Amen to our promises and undertakings Fac fidelis sis fideli cave fidem fluxam geras said he in the Comedy God is faithful be thou so too for if thou failest him thy faith hath failed thee Fides sumitur pro eo quod est inter utrumque placitum says one and then it is true which the Prophet and the Apostle said the Just shall live by Faith in both senses ex fide mea vivet ex fide sua we live by Gods Faith and by our own by his Fidelity and by ours When the righteousness of God becomes your righteousness and exceeds the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees when the righteousness of the Law is fulfilled in us by walking not after the flesh but after the Spirit then we are justified by Gods truth and by ours by his Grace and our Obedience So that now we see that Justification and Sanctification cannot be distinguished but as words of Art signifying the various steps of progression in the same course they may be distinguished in notion and speculation but never when they are to pass on to material events for no man is justified but he that is also sanctified They are the express words of S. Paul Whom he did foreknow them he did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son to be like to Christ and then it follows Whom he hath predestinated so predestinated them he hath also called and whom he hath called them he hath also justified and then it follows Whom he hath justified them he hath also glorified So that no man is justified that is so as to signifie Salvation but Sanctification must be precedent to it and that was my second consideration 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which I was to prove 3. I pray consider that he that does not believe the promises of the Gospel cannot pretend to Faith in Christ but the promises are all made to us upon the conditions of Obedience and he that does not believe them as Christ made them believes them not at all In well doing commit your selves to God as unto a faithful Creator there is no committing our selves to God without well doing For God will render to every man according to his deeds to them that obey unrighteousness indignation and wrath but to them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and honour and immortality to them eternal life So that if Faith apprehends any other promises it is illusion and not Faith God gave us none such Christ purchased none such for us search the Bible over and you shall find none such But if Faith layes hold on these promises that are and as they are then it becomes an Article of our Faith that without obedience and a sincere endeavour to keep Gods Commandments no man living can be justified And therefore let us take heed when we magnifie the free Grace of God we do not exclude the conditions which this free Grace hath set upon us Christ freely dyed for us God pardons us freely in our first access to him we could never deserve pardon because when we need pardon we are enemies and have no good thing in us and he freely gives us of his Spirit and freely he enables us to obey him and for our little imperfect services he freely and bountifully will give us eternal life here is free Grace all the way and he overvalues his pitiful services who thinks that he deserves Heaven by them and that if he does his duty tolerably eternal life is not a free gift to him but a deserved reward Conscius est animus meus experientia testis Mystica quae retuli dogmata vera scio Non tamen idcirco scio me fore glorificandum Spes mea crux Christi gratia non opera It was the meditation of the wise Chancellor of Paris I know that without a good life and the fruits of repentance a sinner cannot be justified and therefore I must live well or I must dye for ever But if I do live holily I do not think that I deserve Heaven it is the Cross of Christ that procures me grace it is the Spirit of Christ that gives me grace it is the mercy and the free gift of Christ that brings me unto glory But yet he that shall exclude the works of Faith from the Justification of a sinner by the blood of Christ may as well exclude Faith it self for Faith it self is one of the works of God it is a good work so said Christ to them that asked him What shall we do to work the works of God Jesus said This is the work of God that ye believe on him whom he hath sent Faith is not only the foundation of good works but it self is a good work it is not only the cause of obedience but a part of it it is not as the Son of Sirach calls it initium adhaerendi Deo a beginning of cleaving unto God but it carries us on to the perfection of it Christ is the Author and finisher of our Faith and when Faith is finished a good life is made perfect in our kind Let no man therefore expect events for which he hath no promise nor call for Gods fidelity without his own faithfulness nor snatch at a promise without performing the condition nor think faith to be a hand to apprehend Christ and to do nothing else for that will but
deceive us and turn Religion into words and Holiness into hypocrisie and the Promises of God into a snare and the Truth of God into a ly For when God made a Covenant of Faith he made also the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Law of Faith and when he admitted us to a Covenant of more mercy than was in the Covenant of works or of the Law he did not admit us to a Covenant of idleness and an incurious walking in a state of disobedience but the mercy of God leadeth us to repentance and when he gives us better promises he intends we should pay him a better obedience when he forgives us what is past he intends we should sin no more when he offers us his graces he would have us to make use of them when he causes us to distrust our selves his meaning is we should rely upon him when he enables us to do what he commands us he commands us to do all that we can And therefore this Covenant of Faith and Mercy is also a Covenant of Holiness and the grace that pardons us does also purifie us for so saith the Apostle He that hath this hope purifies himself even as God is pure And when we are so then we are justified indeed this is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Law of faith and by works in this sense that is by the works of faith by faith working by love and producing fruits worthy of amendment of ife we are justified before God And so I have done with the affirmative Proposition of my Text you see that a man is justified by works But there is more in it than this matter yet amounts to for S. James does not say we are justified by works and are not justified by faith that had been irreconcileable with S. Paul but we are so justified by works that it is not by Faith alone it is faith and works together that is it is by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the obedience of faith by the works of Faith by the Law of faith by Righteousness Evangelical by the conditions of the Gospel and the measures of Christ. I have many things to say in this particular but because I have but a little time left to say them in I will sum it all up in this Proposition That in the question of justification and salvation faith and good works are no part of a distinction but members of one entire body Faith and good works together work the righteousness of God That is that I may speak plainly justifying faith contains in it obedience and if this be made good then the two Apostles are reconciled to each other and both of them to the necessity the indispensible necessity of a good life Now that justifying and saving faith must be defined by something more than an act of understanding appears not only in this that S. Peter reckons faith as distinctly from knowledge as he does from patience or strength or brotherly kindness saying Add to your faith vertue to vertue knowledge but in this also because an error in life and whatsoever is against holiness is against faith And therefore S. Paul reckons the lawless and the disobedient murderers of Parents man-stealing and such things to be against sound Doctrines for the Doctrine of faith is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Doctrine that is according to godliness And when S. Paul prayes against ungodly men he adds this reason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for all men have not faith meaning that wicked men are Infidels and Unbelievers and particularly he affirms of him that does not provide for his own that he hath denyed the Faith Now from hence it follows that faith is godliness because all wickedness is infidelity it is an Apostacy from the faith Ille erit ille nocens qui me tibi fecerat hostem he that sins against God he is the enemy to the faith of Jesus Christ and therefore we deceive our selves if we place faith in the understanding only it is not that and it does not well there but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Apostle the Mystery of faith is kept no where it dwells no where but in a pure conscience For I consider that since all moral habits are best defined by their operation we can best understand what faith is by seeing what it does To this purpose hear S. Paul By faith Abel offered up to God a more excellent Sacrifice than Cain By faith Noah made an Ark. By faith Abraham left his Country and offered up his Son By faith Moses chose to suffer affliction and accounted the reproach of Christ greater than all the riches of Aegypt In short the children of God by faith subdued Kingdoms and wrought righteousness To work righteousness is as much the duty and work of faith as believing is So that now we may quickly make an end of this great inquiry whether a man is justified by faith or by works for he is so by both if you take it alone faith does not justifie but take it in the aggregate sense as it is used in the question of Justification by S. Paul and then faith does not only justifie but it sanctifies too and then you need to enquire no further obedience is a part of the definition of faith as much as it is of Charity This is love saith S. John that we keep his Commandments And the very same is affirmed of faith too by Bensirach He that believeth the Lord will keep his Commandments I have now done with all the Propositions expressed and implyed in the Text give me leave to make some practical Considerations and so I shall dismiss you from this Attention The rise I take from the words of S. Epiphanius speaking in praise of the Apostolical and purest Ages of the Church There was at first no distinction of Sects and Opinions in the Church she knew no difference of men but good and bad there was no separation made but what was made by piety or impiety or sayes he which is all one by fidelity and infidelity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For faith hath in it the Image of godliness engraven and infidelity hath the Character of wickedness and prevarication A man was not then esteemed a Saint for disobeying his Bishop or an Apostle nor for misunderstanding the hard sayings of S. Paul about predestination to kick against the laudable Customs of the Church was not then accounted a note of the godly party and to despise Government was but an ill mark and weak indication of being a good Christian. The Kingdom of God did not then consist in words but in power the power of godliness though now we are fallen into another method we have turned all Religion into Faith and our faith is nothing but the productions of interest or disputing it is adhering to a party and a wrangling against all the world beside and when it is asked of what Religion he is of we understand
it at all Remember that the Snail out-went the Eagle and won the goal because she set out betimes To sum up all every good man is a new Creature and Christianity is not so much a Divine institution as a Divine frame and temper of Spirit which if we heartily pray for and endeavour to obtain we shall find it as hard and as uneasie to sin against God as now we think it impossible to abstain from our most pleasing sins For as it is in the Spermatick vertue of the Heavens which diffuses it self Universally upon all sublunary bodies and subtilly insinuating it self into the most dull and unactive Element produces Gold and Pearls Life and motion and brisk activities in all things that can receive the influence and heavenly blessing so it is in the Holy Spirit of God and the word of God and the grace of God which S. John calls the seed of God it is a Law of Righteousness and it is a Law of the Spirit of Life and changes Nature into Grace and dulness into zeal and fear into love and sinful habits into innocence and passes on from grace to grace till we arrive at the full measures of the stature of Christ and into the perfect liberty of the sons of God so that we shall no more say The evil that I would not that I do but we shall hate what God hates and the evil that is forbidden we shall not do not because we are strong of our selves but because Christ is our strength and he is in us and Christs strength shall be perfected in our weakness and his grace will be sufficient for us and he will of his own good pleasure work in us not only to will but also to do velle perficere saith the Apostle to will and to do it throughly and fully being sanctified throughout to the glory of his Holy name and the eternal salvation of our souls through Jesus Christ our Lord To whom with the Father c. FIDES FORMATA OR Faith working by Love SERM. III. JAMES II. 24. You see then how that by Works a Man is justified and not by Faith only THat we are justified by Faith S. Paul tells us That we are also justified by Works we are told in my Text and both may be true But that this Justification is wrought by Faith without Works to him that worketh not but believeth saith S. Paul That this is not wrought without Works S. James is as express for his Negative as S. Paul was for his Affirmative and how both these should be true is something harder to unriddle But affirmanti incumbit probatio he that affirms must prove and therefore S. Paul proves his Doctrine by the example of Abraham to whom Faith was imputed for Righteousness and therefore not by Works And what can be answered to this Nothing but this That S. James uses the very same Argument to prove that our Justification is by Works also For our Father Abraham was justified by works when he offered up his Son Isaac Now which of these says true Certainly both of them but neither of them have been well understood insomuch that they have not only made divisions of heart among the faithful but one party relies on Faith to the disparagement of Good Life and the other makes Works to be the main ground of our hope and confidence and consequently to exclude the efficacy of Faith The one makes Christian Religion a lazy and unactive Institution and the other a bold presumption on our selves while the first tempts us to live like Heathens and the other recalls us to live the life of Jews while one says I am of Paul and another I am of S. James and both of them put it in danger of evacuating the institution and the death of Christ one looking on Christ only as a Law-giver and the other only as a Saviour The effects of these are very sad and by all means to be diverted by all the wise considerations of the Spirit My purpose is not with subtle Arts to reconcile them that never disagreed the two Apostles spake by the same Spirit and to the same last design though to differing intermedial purposes But because the great end of Faith the design the definition the state the oeconomy of it is that all Believers should not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit Before I fall to the close handling of the Text I shall premise some preliminary Considerations to prepare the way of holiness to explicate the differing sences of the Apostles to understand the Question and the Duty by removing the causes of the vulgar mistakes of most men in this Article and then proceed to the main Inquiry 1. That no man may abuse himself or others by mistaking of hard words spoken in mystery with alegorical expressions to secret senses wrapt up in a cloud such as are Faith and Justification and Imputation and Righteousness and Works be pleased to consider That the very word Faith is in Scripture infinitely ambiguous insomuch that in the Latine Concordances of S. Hierom's Bible published by Robert Stephens you may see no less then twenty two several senses and accceptations of of the word Faith set down with the several places of Scripture referring to them to which if out of my own own observation I could add no more yet these are an abundant demonstration That whatsoever is said of the efficacy of Faith for Justification is not to be taken in such a sence as will weaken the necessity and our carefulness of good life when the word may in so many other sences be taken to verifie the affirmation of S. Paul of Justification by Faith so as to reconcile it to the necessity of Obedience 2. As it is in the word Faith so it is in Works for by Works is meant sometimes the thing done sometimes the labour of doing sometimes the good will it is sometimes taken for a state of good life sometimes for the Covenant of Works it sometimes means the Works of the Law sometimes the Works of the Gospel sometimes it is taken for a perfect actual unsinning Obedience sometimes for a sincere endeavour to please God sometimes they are meant to be such which can challenge the Reward as of Debt sometimes they mean only a disposition of the person to receive the favour and the grace of God Now since our good Works can be but of one kind for ours cannot be meritorious ours cannot be without sin all our life they cannot be such as need no repentance it is no wonder if we must be justified without Works in this sence for by such Works no man living can be justified And these S. Paul calls the Works of the Law and sometimes he calls them our righteousness and these are the Covenant of Works But because we came into the World to serve God and God will be obeyed and Jesus Christ came into the World to save us from sin and
to redeem to himself a people zealous of good works and hath to this purpose reveal'd to us all his Fathers Will and destroyed the works of the Devil and gives us his holy Spirit and by him we shall be justified in this Obedience therefore when Works signifie a sincere hearty endeavour to keep all Gods Commands out of a belief in Christ that if we endeavour to do so we shall be helped by his grace and if we really do so we shall be pardoned for what is past and if we continue to do so we shall receive a Crown of Glory therefore it is no wonder that it is said we are to be justified by Works always meaning not the Works of the Law that is Works that are meritorious works that can challenge the reward works that need no mercy no repentance no humiliation and no appeal to grace and favour but always meaning works that are an obedience to God by the measures of good will and a sincere endeavour and the Faith of the Lord Jesus 3. But thus also it is in the word Justification For God is justified and Wisdom is justified and Man is justified and a sinner is not justified as long as he continues in sin and a sinner is justified when he repents and when he is pardoned and an innocent person is justified when he is declared to be no criminal and a righteous man is justified when he is saved and a weak Christian is justified when his imperfect Services are accepted for the present and himself thrust forward to more grace and he that is justified may be justified more and every man that is justified to one purpose is not so to all and Faith in divers sences gives Justification in as many and therefore though to every sence of Faith there is not always a degree of Justification in any yet when the Faith is such that Justification is the product and correspondent as that Faith may be imperfect so the Justification is but begun and either must proceed further or else as the Faith will dy so the Justification will come to nothing The like observation might be made concerning Imputation and all the words used in this Question but these may suffice till I pass to other particulars 4. Not only the word Faith but also Charity and Godliness and Religion signifie sometimes particular Graces and sometimes they suppose Universally and mean Conjugations and Unions of Graces as is evident to them that read the Scriptures with observation Now when Justification is attributed to Faith or Salvation to Godliness they are to be understood in the aggregate sence for that I may give but one instance of this when S. Paul speaks of Faith as it is a particular Grace and separate from the rest he also does separate it from all possibility of bringing us to Heaven Though I have all Faith so that I could remove Mountains and have no Charity I am nothing When Faith includes Charity it will bring us to Heaven when it is alone when it is without Charity it will do nothing at all 5. Neither can this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be salved by saying That though Faith alone does justifie yet when she does justifie she is not alone but Good Works must follow for this is said to no purpose 1. Because if we be justified by Faith alone the work is done whether Charity does follow or no and therefore that want of Charity cannot hurt us 2. There can be no imaginable cause why Charity and Obedience should be at all necessary if the whole work can be done without it 3. If Obedience and Charity be not a condition of our Salvation then it is not necessary to follow Faith but if it be it does as much as Faith for that is but a part of the condition 4. If we can besaved without Charity and keeping the Commandments what need we trouble our selves for them if we cannot be saved without them then either Faith without them does not justifie or if it does we are never the better for we may be damned for all that Justification The Consequent of these Observations is briefly this 1. That no man should fool himself by disputing about the Philosophy of Justification and what causality Faith hath in it and whether it be the act of Faith that justifies or the habit Whether Faith as a Good Work or Faith as an Instrument Whether Faith as it is Obedience or Faith as it is an Access to Christ Whether as a Hand or as a Heart Whether by its own innate Vertue or by the efficacy of the Object Whether as a sign or as a thing signified Whether by introduction or by perfection Whether in the first beginnings or in its last and best productions Whether by inherent worthiness or adventitious imputation Vberiùs ista quaeso c. that I may use the words of Cicero haec enim spinosiora priùs ut confiteor me cogunt quam ut assentiar These things are knotty and too intricate to do any good they may amuse us but never instruct us and they have already made men careless and confident disputative and troublesome proud and uncharitable but neither wiser nor better Let us therefore leave these weak wayes of troubling our selves or others and directly look to the Theology of it the direct duty the end of Faith and the work of Faith the conditions and the instruments of our Salvation the just foundation of our hopes how our faith can destroy our sin and how it can unite us unto God how by it we can be made Partakers of Christs death and Imitators of his life For since it is evident by the premises that this article is not to be determined or relyed upon by arguing from words of many significations we must walk by a clearer light by such plain sayings and Dogmatical Propositions of Scripture which evidently teach us our duty and place our hopes upon that which cannot deceive us that is which require Obedience which call upon us to glorifie God and to do good to men and to keep all Gods Commandments with diligence and sincerity For since the end of our faith is that we may be Disciples and Servants of the Lord Jesus advancing his Kingdom here and partaking of it hereafter since we are commanded to believe what Christ taught that it may appear as reasonable as it is necessary to do what he hath commanded since Faith and works are in order one to the other it is impossible that Evangelical Faith and Evangelical works should be opposed one to the other in the effecting of our Salvation So that as it is to no purpose for Christians to dispute whether we are justified by Faith or the works of the Law that is the Covenant of works without the help of Faith and the auxiliaries and allowances of mercy on Gods part and repentance on ours because no Christian can pretend to this so it is perfectly foolish to dispute whether
the meaning to be what faction does he follow what are the Articles of his Sect not what is the manner of his life and if men be zealous for their party and that interest then they are precious men though otherwise they be covetous as the Grave factious as Dathan Schismatical as Corah or proud as the falling Angels Alas these things will but deceive us the faith of a Christian cannot consist in strifes about words and perverse disputings of men These things the Apostle calls prophane and vain bablings and mark what he sayes of them these things will encrease 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They are in themselves ungodliness and will produce more they will encrease unto more ungodliness but the faith of a Christian had other measures that was faith then which made men faithful to their vows in Baptism The faith of a Christian was the best security in contracts and a Christians word was as good as his bond because he was faithful that promised and a Christian would rather dye than break his word and was always true to his trust he was faithful to his friend and loved as Jonathan did David This was the Christian faith then their Religion was to hurt no man and to do good to every man and so it ought to be True Religion is to visit the Fatherless and Widow and to keep our selves unspotted of the World That 's a good religion that 's pure and undefiled so S. James and S. Chrysostom defines 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 true Religion to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a pure faith and a godly life for they make up the whole mystery of godliness and no man could then pretend to faith but he that did do valiantly and suffer patiently and resist the Devil and overcome the world These things are as properly the actions of Faith as alms is of Charity and therefore they must enter into the moral definition of it And this was truly understood by Salvian that wise and godly Priest of Massilia what is faith and what is believing saith he hominem fideliter Christo credere est fidelem Deo esse h. e. fideliter Dei mandata servare That man does faithfully believe in Christ who is faithful unto God who faithfully keeps Gods commandments and therefore let us measure our faith here by our faithfulness to God and by our diligence to do our Masters Comandments for Christianorum omnis religio sine scelere maculâ vivere said Lactantius the whole religion of a Christian is to live unblameably that is in all holiness and purity of conversation 2. When our faith is spoken of as the great instrument of justification and salvation take Abraham's faith as your best pattern and that will end the dispute because that he was justified by faith when his faith was mighty in effect when he trusted in God when he believed the promises when he expected a resurrection of the dead when he was strong in Faith when he gave glory to God when against hope he believed in hope and when all this past into an act of a most glorious obedience even denying his greatest desires contradicting his most passionate affections offering to God the best thing he had and exposing to death his beloved Isaac his laughters all his joy at the command of God By this faith he was justified saith S. Paul by these works he was justified faith S. James that is by this faith working this obedience And then all the difficulty is over only remember this your faith is weak and will do but little for you if it be not stronger then all your secular desires and all your peevish angers Thus we find in the holy Gospels this conjunction declared necessary Whatsoever things ye desire when ye pray believe that ye receive them and ye shall have them Here is as glorious an event promised to Faith as can be expressed Faith shall obtain any thing of God True but it is not Faith alone but faith in prayer Faith praying not Faith simply believing So S. James the prayer of Faith shall save the sick but adds it must be the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man so that faith shall prevail but there must be prayer in faith and fervour in prayer and devotion in fervour and righteousness in devotion and then impute the effect to faith if you please provided that it be declared that effect cannot be wrought by Faith unless it be so qualified But Christ adds one thing more When ye stand praying forgive but if ye will not forgive neither will your Father forgive you So that it will be to no purpose to say a man is justified by faith unless you mingle charity with it for without the charity of forgiveness there can be no pardon and then justification is but a word when it effects nothing 3. Let every one take heed that by an importune adhering to and relying upon a mistaken Faith he do not really make a shipwrack of a right Faith Hymenaeus and Alexander lost their Faith by putting away a good conscience and what matter is it of what Religion or Faith a man be of if he be a Villain and a cheat a man of no truth and of no trust a lover of the World and not a lover of God But I pray consider can any man have Faith that denyes God That 's not possible and cannot a man as well deny God by an evil action as by an heretical Proposition Cannot a man deny God by works as much as by words Hear what the Apostle sayes They profess that they know God but in works they deny him being abominable and disobedient and unto every good work reprobate Disobedience is a denying God Nolumus hunc regnare is as plain a renouncing of Christ as nolumus huic credere It is to no purpose to say we believe in Christ and have Faith unless Christ reign in our hearts by Faith 4. From these premises we may see but too evidently that though a great part of mankind pretend to be saved by Faith yet they know not what it is or else wilfully mistake it and place their hopes upon sand or the more unstable water Believing is the least thing in a justifying Faith for Faith is a conjugation of many Ingredients and faith is a Covenant and faith is a Law and faith is Obedience and faith is a Work and indeed it is a sincere cleaving to and closing with the terms of the Gospel in every instance in every particular Alas the niceties of a spruce understanding and the curious nothings of useless speculation and all the opinions of men that make the divisions of heart and do nothing else cannot bring us one drop of comfort in the day of tribulation and therefore are no parts of the strength of faith Nay when a man begins truly to fear God and is in the Agonies of Mortification all these new-nothings and curiosities will lye neglected by as
disputes and says Nay but the other is better he is like a Servant that gives his Master necessary Counsel when he requires of him a necessary Obedience Utilius parere edicto quam efferre consilium he had better obey than give counsel by how much it is better to be profitable than to be witty to be full of goodness rather than full of talk and Argument But all this is acknowledged true in strong men but not in the weak in vigorous but not in tender Consciences for Obedience is strong Meat and will not down with weak stomacks As if in the World any thing were easier than to obey for we see that the food of Children is Milk and Laws the Breast-milk of their Nurses and the Commands of their Parents is all that Food and Government by which they are kept from harm and hunger and conducted to life and wisdom And therefore they that are weak Brethren of all things in the World have the least reason to pretend an excuse for Disobedience for nothing can secure them but the wisdom of the Laws for they are like Children in minority they cannot be trusted to their own conduct and therefore must live at the publick charge and the wisdom of their Superiors is their guide and their security And this was wisely advised by S. Paul Him that is weak in the Faith receive but not to doubtful disputations that 's not the way for him Children must not dispute with their Fathers and their Masters If old men will dispute let them look to it that 's meat for the strong indeed though it be not very nutritive but the Laws and the Counsels the Exhortations and the Doctrines of our Spiritual Rulers are the measures by which God hath appointed Babes in Christ to become Men and the weak to become strong and they that are not to be received to doubtful disputations are to be received with the arms of Love into the embraces of a certain and regular Obedience But it would be considered That Tenderness of Conscience is an equivocal term and does not always signifie in a good sense For a Child is of tender flesh but he whose foot is out of joint or hath a bile in his arm or hath strained a sinew is much more tender The tenderness of age is that weakness that is in the ignorant and the new beginners the tenderness of a bile that is soreness indeed rather than tenderness is of the diseased the abused and the mis-perswaded The first indeed are to be tenderly dealt with and have usages accordingly but that is the same I have already told you must teach them you must command them you must guide them you must chuse for them you must be their Guardians and they must comport themselves accordingly But for that tenderness of Conscience which is the disease and soreness of Conscience it must be cured by Anodynes and soft usages unless they prove ineffective and that the Launcet be necessary But there are amongst us such tender Stomacks that cannot endure Milk but can very well digest Iron Consciences so tender that a Ceremony is greatly offensive but Rebellion is not a Surplice drives them away as a bird affrighted with a man of clouts but their Consciences can suffer them to despise Government and speak evil of Dignities and curse all that are not of their Opinion and disturb the Peace of Kingdoms and commit Sacrilegs and account Schism the character of Saints The true Tenderness of Conscience is 1. That which is impatient of a Sin 2. It will not endure any thing that looks like it And 3. It will not give offence Now since all Sin is Disobedience 1. It will be rarely contingent that a man in a Christian Commonwealth shall be tied to disobey to avoid Sin and certain it is if such a case could happen yet 2. nothing of our present Question is so like a Sin as when we refuse to obey the Laws To stand in a clean Vestment is not so ill a sight as to see men stand in separation and to kneel at the Communion is not so like Idolatry as Rebellion is to Witchcraft And then 3. For the matter of giving offences what scandal is greater than that which scandalizes the Laws and who is so carefully to be observed lest he be offended as the KING And if that which offends the weak brother is to be avoided much more that which offends the strong for this is certainly really criminal but for the other it is much odds but it is mistaken And when the case is so put between the obedient and the disobedient which shall be offended and one will I suppose there is no question but the Laws will take more care of Subjects than of Rebels and not weaken them in their Duty in compliance with those that hate the Laws and will not endure the Government And after all this in the conduct of Government what remedy can there be to those that call themselves Tender Consciences I shall not need to say that every man can easily pretend it for we have seen the vilest part of mankind men that have done things so horrid worse than which the Sun never saw yet pretend tender Consciences against Ecclesiastical Laws But I will suppose that they are really such that they in the simplicity of their hearts follow Absolom and in weakness hide their heads in little Conventicles and places of separation for a trifle what would they have done for themselves If You make a Law of Order and in the sanction put a Clause of favour for tender Consciences do not you invite every Subject to Disobedience by impunity and teach him how to make his own excuse Is not such a Law a Law without an obligation May not every man chuse whether he will obey or no and if he pretends to disobey out of Conscience is not he that disobeys equally innocent with the obedient altogether as just as not having done any thing without leave and yet much more Religious and Conscientious Quicunque vult is but an ill preface to a Law and it is a strange obligation that makes no difference between him that obeys and him that refuses to obey But what course must be taken with Tender Consciences Shall the Execution of the Law be suspended as to all such persons That will be all one with the former For if the Execution be commanded to be suspended the obligation of the Law by command is taken away and then it were better there were no Law made And indeed that is the pretension that is the secret of the business they suppose the best way to prevent Disobedience is to take away all Laws It is a short way indeed there shall then be no Disobedience but at the same time there shall be no Government but the Remedy is worse than the Disease and to take away all Wine and Strong Drink to prevent drunkenness would not be half so great a folly I cannot
therefore tell what to advise in this particular but that every Spiritual Guide should consider who are tender Consciences and who are weak Brethren and use all the ways of Piety and Prudence to instruct and to inform them that they may increase in Knowledg and Spiritual Vnderstanding But they that will be always learning and never come to the knowledge of the Truth they that will be Children of a hundred years old and never come to years of Discretion they are very unfit to guide others and to be Curates of Souls but they are most unfit to reprove the Laws and speak against the Wisdom of a Nation when it is confessed that they are so weak that they understand not the fundamental Liberty which Christ hath purchas'd for them but are servants to a Scruple and affrighted at a Circumstance and in bondage under an Indifferent Thing and so much Idolaters of their Sect or Opinion as to prefer it before all their own nobler Interests and the Charity of their Brother and the Peace of a whole Church and Nation To You my Lords and Gentlemen I hope I may say as Marcus Curius said to a stubborn young man Non opus Vos habere cive qui parere nesciret the Kingdom hath no need of those that know not how to obey But as for them who have weak and tender Consciences they are in the state of Childhood and minority but then you know that a Child is never happy by having his own humour if you chuse for him and make him to use it he hath but one thing to do but if you put him to please himself he is troubled with every thing and satisfied with nothing We find that all Christian Churches kept this Rule They kept themselves and others close to the Rule of Faith and peaceably suffered one another to differ in Ceremonies but suffered no difference amongst their own they gave Liberty to other Churches and gave Laws and no Liberty to their own Subjects And at this day the Churches of Geneva France Switzerland Germany Low-Countries tye all their people to their own Laws but tye up no mans Conscience if he be not perswaded as they are let him charitably dissent and leave that Government and adhere to his own Communion If you be not of their mind they will be served by them that are they will not trouble your Conscience and you shall not disturb their Government But when men think they cannot enjoy their Conscience unless you give them good Livings and if you prefer them not you afflict their Consciences they do but too evidently declare that it is not their Consciences but their Profits they would have secured Now to these I have only this to say That their Conscience is to be enjoyed by the Measures of Gods Word but the Rule for their Estates is the Laws of the Kingdom and I shew you yet a more excellent way Obedience is the best security for both because this is the best conservatory of Charity and Truth and Peace Si vis brevi perfectus esse esto obediens etiam in minimis was the saying of a Saint and the World uses to look for Miracles from them whom they shall esteem Saints but I had rather see a man truly humble and obedient than to see him raise a man from the dead said old Pachomius But to conclude If weak Brethren shall still plead for Toleration and Compliance I hope my Lords the Bishops will consider where it can do good and do no harm where they are permitted and where themselves are bound up by the Laws and in all things where it is safe and holy to labour to bring them ease and to give them remedy but to think of removing the Disease by feeding the Humor I confess it is a strange Cure to our present Distempers He that took clay and spittle to open the blind eyes can make any thing be collyrium but he alone can do it But whether any humane Power can bring good from so unlikely an Instrument if any man desires yet to be better informed I desire him besides the calling to mind the late sad effects of Schism to remember that no Church in Christendom ever did it It is neither the way of Peace nor Government nor yet a proper Remedy for the cure of a weak Conscience I shall therefore pray to God That these men who separate in simplicity may by Gods mercy be brought to understand their own Liberty and that they may not for ever be Babes and Neophytes and wax old in trifles and for ever stay at the entrances and outsides of Religion but that they would pass in interiora domûs and seek after Peace and Righteousness Holiness and Justice the Love of God and Evangelical Perfections and then they will understand how ill-advised they are who think Religion consists in Zeal against Ceremonies and speaking evil of the Laws My Lords and Gentlemen what I said in pursuance of publick Peace and private Duty and some little incidences to both I now humbly present to You more to shew my own Obedience than to remind you of your Duty which hitherto You have so well observed in Your amicable and sweet concord of Councels and Affections during this present Session I owe many Thanks to You who heard me patiently willingly and kindly I endeavoured to please God and I find I did not displease You but he is the best hearer of a Sermon who first loves the Doctrine and then practises it and that You have hitherto done very piously and very prosperously I pray God continue to direct Your Counsels so that You in all things may please him and in all things be blessed by him that all Generations may call You blessed Instruments of a lasting Peace the Restorers of the old Paths the Patrons of the Church Friends of Religion and Subjects fitted for Your Prince who is Just up to the greatest Example and Merciful beyond all Examples a Prince who hath been Nourished and Preserved and Restored and Blessed by Miracles a Prince whose Virtues and Fortunes are equally the greatest A SERMON Preached at the opening of the PARLIAMENT SERM. V. 1 Sam. 15. latter part of verse 22. Behold to obey is better than sacrifice and to hearken than the fat of Rams First part of ver 23. For Rebellion is as the sin of Witchcraft and Stubbornness is as Iniquity and Idolatry IN the World nothing is more easie than to say our Prayers and to obey our Superiors and yet in the World there is nothing to which we are so unwilling as to Prayer and nothing seems so intolerable as Obedience for men esteem all Laws to be Fetters and their Superiors are their Enemies and when a command is given we turn into all shapes of excuse to escape from the imposition For either the authority is incompetent or the Law it self is Statutum non bonum or it is impossible to be kept or at least very inconvenient and we
are to be reliev'd in equity or there is a secret dispensation and it does not bind in my particular case or not now or it is but the law of a man and was made for a certain end or it does not bind the conscience but 't was only for Political regards or if the worst happen I will obey passively and then I am innocent Thus every man snuffs up the wind like the wild Asses in the Wilderness and thinks that Authority is an incroachment upon a mans birth-right and in the mean time never considers that Christ took upon him our Nature that he might learn us obedience and in that also make us become like unto God In his Justice and his Mercy he was imitable before but before the Incarnation of Christ we could not in passive graces imitate God who was impassible but he was pleased at a great rate to set forward this duty and when himself became obedient in the hardest point obediens usque ad mortem and is now become to us the Author and Finisher of our Obedience as well as of our Faith admonetur omnis aetas fieri posse quod aliquando factum est We must needs confess it very possible to obey the severest of the Divine Laws even to dye if God commands because it was already done by a man and we must needs confess it excellent because it was done by God himself But this great Example is of universal influence in the whole matter of Obedience For that I may speak of that part of this Duty which can be useful and concerns us Men do not deny but they must obey in all Civil things but in Religion they have a Supreme God only and Conscience is his interpreter and in effect every man must be the Judge whether he shall obey or no. Therefore it is that I say the example of our Lord is the great determination of this inquiry for he did obey and suffer according to the commands of his Superiors under whose Government he was placed he gave his back to the smiters and his cheeks to the nippers he kept the Orders of the Rulers and the Customs of the Synagogues the Law of Moses and the Rites of the Temple and by so doing he fulfilled all righteousness Christ made no distinctions in his Obedience but obeyed God in all things and those that God set over him in all things according to God and in things of Religion most of all because to obey was of it self a great instance of Religion and if ever Religion comes to be pretended against Obedience in any thing where our Superior can command it is imposture For that is the purpose of my Text Obedience is better than Sacrifice Our own judgment our own opinion is the Sacrifice seldom fit to be offered to God but most commonly deserving to be consumed by fire but take it at the best it is not half so good as Obedience for that was indeed Christ's Sacrifice and as David said of Goliah's sword non est alter talis there is no other Sacrifice that can be half so good and when Abraham had lifted up his sacrificing knife to slay his Son and so expressed his obedience God would have no more he had the Obedience and he cared not for the Sacrifice By Sacrifice here then is meant the external and contingent actions of Religion by Obedience is meant submission to Authority and observing the command Obedience is a not chusing our Duty a not disputing with our Betters not to argue not to delay not to murmur it is not this but it is much better for it is Love and Simplicity and Humility and Vsefulness and I think these do reductively contain all that is excellent in the whole conjugation of Christian Graces My Text is a perfect Proposition and hath no special remark in the words of it but is only a great representation of the most useful Truth to all Kingdoms and Parliaments and Councels and Authorities in the whole world It is your Charter and the Sanction of your Authority and the Stabiliment of your Peace and the Honour of your Laws and the great defence of your Religion and the building up and the guarding of the Kings Throne It is that by which all the Societies in Heaven and Earth are firm without this you cannot have a Village prosperous or a Ship arrive in Harbour It is that which God hath bound upon us by hope and fear by wrath and conscience by duty and necessity Obedience is the formality of all Vertues and every sin is Disobedience There can no greater thing be said unless you please to add that we never read that the earth opened and swallowed up any man alive but a company of rebellious disobedient people who rose up against Moses and Aaron the Prince of the People and the Priest of God For Obedience is the most necessary thing in the world and corruptio optimi est pessima Disobedience is the greatest evil in the world and that alone which can destroy it My Text is instanced in the matter of Obedience to God but yet the case is so that though I shall in the first place discourse of our Obedience to man I shall not set one foot aside from the main intention of it because Obedience to our Superiours is really and is accounted to be Obedience to God for they are sent by God they are his Vicegerents his Ministers and his Embassadors Apostolus cujusque est quisque say the Jews Every mans Apostle is himself and he that heareth or despiseth you said Christ heareth or despiseth me And the reason is very evident because it is not to be expected that God should speak to us by himself but sometimes by Angels sometimes by Prophets once by his Son and alwaies by his Servants Now I desire two things to be observed First We may as well perceive that God speaks to us when he uses the ministry of men as when he uses the ministry of Angels one is as much declared and as certain as the other And if it be said a man may pretend to come from God and yet deliver nothing but his own errand that is no strange thing but remember also that S. Paul puts this supposition in the case of an Angel If an Angel preach any other Gospel and we know that many Angels come like Angels of light who yet teach nothing but the waies of Darkness So that we are still as much bound to obey our Superior as to obey an Angel a man is paulò minor angelis a little lower than the Angels but we are much lower than the King Consider then with what fear and love we should receive an Angel and so let us receive all those whom God hath sent to us and set over us for they are no less less indeed in their Persons but not in their Authorities Nay the case is nearer yet for we are not only bound to receive God's Deputies as God's
imploretur remedium run to the King for remedy for therefore God hath set the Imperial fortune over humane affairs ut possit omnia quae noviter contingunt emendare componere modis ac regulis competentibus tradere that the King may amend and rule and compose every new arising question And it is not to be despised but is a great indication of this Truth that the Answers of the Roman Princes and Judges recorded in the Civil Law are such that all Nations of the world do approve them and are a great testimony how the sentences of Kings ought to be valued even in matters of Religion and questions of greatest doubt Bona conscientia Scyphus est Josephi said the old Abbot of Kells a good Conscience is like Joseph's Cup in which our Lord the King divines And since God hath blessed us with so good so just so religious and so wise a Prince let the sentence of his Laws be our last resort and no questions be permitted after his judgment and legal determination For Wisdom saith By me Princes rule by me they decree justice and therefore the spirit of the King is a divine eminency and is as the spirit of the most High God 4. Let no man be too busie in disputing the laws of his Superiors for a man by that seldom gets good to himself but seldom misses to do mischief unto others 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said one in Laertius Will a Son contend with his Father that 's not decent though the son speak that which is right he may possibly say well enough but he does do very ill not only because he does not pay his duty and reverential fear but because it is in it self very often unreasonable to dispute concerning the command of our Superior whether it be good or no for the very commandment can make it not only good but a necessary good It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these necessary things said the Council of Jerusalem and yet these things were not necessary but as they were commanded to abstain from a strangled hen or a bloody pudding could not of themselves be necessary but the commandment came authority did interpose and then they were made so 5. But then besides the advantages both of the Spirit and the authority of Kings in matter of question the Laws and Decrees of a National Church ought upon the account of their own advantages be esteemed as a final sentence in all things disputed The thing is a plain command Hebrews 13. 7. Remember them which have the Rule over you who have spoken unto you the word of God this tells what Rulers he means Rulers Ecclesiastical and what of them whose faith follow they must praeire in articulis they are not Masters of your Faith but Guides of it and they that sit in Moses chair must be heard and obeyed said our blessed Saviour These words were not said for nothing and they were nothing if their authority were nothing For between the laws of a Church and the opinion of a Subject the comparison is the same as between a publick spirit and a private The publick is far the better the daughter of God and the mother of a blessing and alwayes dwels in light The publick spirit hath already passed the tryal it hath been subjected to the Prophets tryed and searched and approved the private is yet to be examined The publick spirit is uniform and apt to be followed the private is various and multiform as chance and no man can follow him that hath it for if he follows one he is reproved by a thousand and if he changes he may get a shame but no truth and he can never rest but in the arms and conduct of his Superior When Aaron and Miriam murmured against Moses God told them they were Prophets of an inferior rank than Moses was God communicated himself to them in dreams and visions but the Ruach hakkodesh the publick spirit of Moses their Prince that was higher and what then wherefore then God said were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses plainly teaching us that where there is a more excellent spirit they that have a spirit less excellent ought to be afraid to speak against it And this is the full case of the private and publick spirit that is of a Subject speaking against the Spirit and the Laws of the Church In Heaven and in the air and in all the regions of Spirits the Spirit of a lower Order dares not speak against the Spirit of an higher and therefore for a private Spirit to oppose the publick is a disorder greater than is in Hell it self To conclude this point Let us consider whether it were not an intolerable mischief if the Judges should give sentence in causes of instance by the measures of their own fancy and not by the Laws who would endure them and yet why may they not do that as well as any Ecclesiastick person preach Religion not which the Laws allow but what is taught him by his own private Opinion but he that hath the Laws on his side hath ever something of true Religion to warrant him and can never want a great measure of justification 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Laws and the Customs of the Country are the results of wise Counsels or long experience they ever comply with Peace and publick benefit and nothing of this can be said of private Religions for they break the Peace and trouble the Conscience and undoe Government and despise the Laws and offend Princes and dishonour the wisdom of Parliaments and destroy Obedience Well but in the last place but if we cannot do what the Laws command we will suffer what they impose and then all is well again But first who ever did so that could help it And secondly this talking of passive Obedience is but a mockery for what man did ever say the Laws were not good but he also said the Punishment was unjust And thirdly which of all the Recusants did not endeavour to get ground upon the Laws and secretly or openly asperse the Authority that put him to pain for doing that which he calls his duty and can any man boast of his passive Obedience that calls it Persecution he may think to please himself but he neither does or sayes any thing that is for the reputation of the Laws Such men are like them that sail in a storm they may possibly be thrown into a Harbour but they are very sick all the way But after all this I have one thing to observe to such persons That such a passive Obedience as this does not acquit a man before God and he that suffers what the Law inflicts is not discharged in the Court of Conscience but there is still a sinner and a debter For the Law is not made for the righteous but for sinners that is the punishment
must give your selves up wholly to the Word of God and Prayer they must watch and pray that they fall not into temptation but you must watch for your selves and others too the people must mourn when they sin but you must mourn for your own infirmities and for the sins of others and indeed if the life of a Clergy-man does not exceed even the piety of the People that life is in some measure scandalous and what shame was ever greater than is described in the Parable of the Traveller going from Jerusalem to Jericho when to the eternal dishonour of the Levite and the Priest it is told that they went aside and saw him with a wry neck and a bended head but let him alone and left him to be cured by the good Samaritane The Primitive Church in her Discipline used to thrust their delinquent Clergy in laicam communionem even then when their faults were but small and of less reproach than to deserve greater censures yet they lessened them by thrusting them into the Lay Communion as most fit for such Ministers who refused to live at the height of Sacerdotal piety Remember your dignity to which Christ hath called you shall such a man as I flee said the brave Eleazar shall the Stars be darkness shall the Embassadors of Christ neglect to do their King honour shall the glory of Christ do dishonourable and inglorious actions Ye are the glory of Christ saith S. Paul remember that I can say no greater thing unless possibly this may add some moments for your care and caution that potents potenter cruciabuntur great men shall be greatly tormented if they sin and to fall from a great height is an intolerable ruine Severe were the words of our Blessed Saviour Ye are the Salt of the earth if the Salt have lost his savour it is thenceforth good for nothing neither for Land nor yet for the Dunghil a greater dishonour could not be expressed he that takes such a one up will shake his fingers I end this with the saying of S. Austin Let your religious prudence think that in the world especially at this time nothing is more laborious more difficult or more dangerous than the Office of a Bishop or a Priest or a Deacon Sed apud Deum nihil beatius si eo modo militetur quo noster Imperator jubet but nothing is more blessed if we do our duty according to the Commandment of our Lord. I have already discoursed of the integrity of life and what great necessity there is and how deep obligations lie upon you not only to be innocent and void of offence but also to be holy not only pure but shining not only to be blameless but to be didactick in your lives that as by your Sermons you preach in season so by your lives you may preach out of season that is at all seasons and to all men that they seeing your good works may glorifie God on your behalf and on their own THE Ministers Duty IN LIFE DOCTRINE SERM. X. The second Sermon on Titus 2. 7. In Doctrine shewing uncorruptness gravity sincerity c. NOW by the order of the words and my own undertaking I am to tell you what are the Rules and Measures of your Doctrine which you are to teach the people 1. Be sure that you teach nothing to the people but what is certainly to be found in Scripture Servemus eas mensuras quas nobis per Legislatorem Lex spiritualis enunciat the whole spiritual Law given us by our Law-giver that must be our measures for though by perswasion and by faith by mis-perswasion and by error by false Commentaries and mistaken glosses every man may become a Law unto himself and unhappily bind upon his Conscience burdens which Christ never imposed yet you must bind nothing upon your Charges but what God hath bound upon you you cannot become a Law unto them that 's the only priviledge of the Law-giver who because he was an interpreter of the Divine Will might become a Law unto us and because he was faithful in all the house did tell us all his Fathers Will and g. nothing can be Gods Law to us but what he hath taught us But of this I shall need to say no more but the words of Tertullian Nobis nihil licet ex nostro arbitrio indulgere sed nec eligere aliquid quod de suo arbitrio aliquis induxerit Apostolos Domini habemus Authores qui nec ipsi quicquam de suo arbitrio quod inducerent elegerunt sed acceptam à Christo disciplinam fideliter nationibus assignarunt Whatsoever is not in and taken from the Scriptures is from a private spirit and that is against Scripture certainly for no Scripture is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith S. Peter it is not it cannot be of private interpretation that is unless it come from the Spirit of God which is that Spirit that mov'd upon the waters of the new Creation as well as of the old and was promised to all to you and to your Children and to as many as the Lord our God shall call and is bestowed on all and is the earnest of all our inheritance and is given to every man to profit withall it cannot prove God to be the Author nor be a light to us to walk by or to show others the way to Heaven This Rule were alone sufficient to guide us all in the whole Oeconomy of our Calling if we were not weak and wilful ignorant and abused but the holy Scripture hath suffered so many interpretations and various sounds and seemings and we are so prepossess'd and predetermin'd to misconstruction by false Apostles without and prevailing passions within that though it be in it self sufficient yet it is not so for us and we may say with the Eunuch How can I understand unless some man should guide me and indeed in S. Paul's Epistles there are many things hard to be understood and in many other places we find that the well is deep and unless there be some to help us to draw out the latent senses of it our souls will not be filled with the waters of Salvation Therefore that I may do you what assistances I can and if I cannot in this small portion of time instruct you yet that I may counsel you and remind you of the best assistances that are to be had if I cannot give you rules sufficient to expound all hard places yet that I may shew how you shall sufficiently teach your people by the rare rules and precepts recorded in places that are or may be made easie I shall first give you some advices in general and then descend to more particular Rules and Measures 1. Because it is not to be expected that every Minister of the Word of God should have all the gifts of the Spirit and every one to abound in Tongues and in Doctrines and in Interpretations you may therefore make great use
and be very zealous for nothing but for Gods glory and the salvation of the World and particularly of your Charges Ever remembring that you are by God appointed as the Ministers of Prayer and the Ministers of good things to pray for all the World and to heal all the World as far as you are able rule XVI Every Minister must learn and practise Patience that by bearing all adversity meekly and humbly and cheerfully and by doing all his Duty with unwearied industry with great courage constancy and Christian magnanimity he may the better assist his people in the bearing of their crosses and overcoming their difficulties rule XVII He that is holy let him be holy still and still more holy and never think he hath done his work till all be finished by perseverance and the measures of perfection in a holy Life and a holy Death but at no hand must he magnifie himself by vain separations from others or despising them that are not so holy II. Of Prudence required in Ministers rule XVIII REmember that Discretion is the Mistress of all Graces and Humility is the greatest of all Miracles and without this all Graces perish to a mans self and without that all Gracâ—â— are useless unto others rule XIX Let no Minister be governed by the opinion of his People and destroy his Duty by unreasonable compliance with their humours lest as the Bishop of Granata told the Governours of Leria and Patti like silly Animals they take burdens upon their backs at the pleasure of the multitude which they neither can retain with Prudence nor shake off with Safety rule XX Let not the Reverence of any man cause you to sin against God but in the matter of Souls being well advis'd be bold and confident but abate nothing of the honour of God or the just measures of your Duty to satisfie the importunity of any man whatsoever and God will bear you out rule XXI When you teach your people any part of their duty as in paying their debts their tithes and offerings in giving due reverence and religious regards diminish nothing of admonition in these particulars and the like though they object That you speak for your selves and in your own cases For counsel is not the worse but the better if it be profitable both to him that gives and to him that takes it Only do it in simplicity and principally intend the good of their souls rule XXII In taking accounts of the good Lives of your selves or others take your measures by the express words of Scripture and next to them estimate them by their proportion and compliance with the publick measures with the Laws of the Nation Ecclesiastical and Civil and by the Rules of Fame of publick Honesty and good Report and last of all by their observation of the Ordinances and exteriour parts of Religion rule XXIII Be not satisfied when you have done a good work unless you have also done it well and when you have then be careful that vain-glory partiality self-conceit or any other folly or indiscretion snatch it not out of your hand and cheat you of the reward rule XXIV Be careful so to order your self that you fall not into temptation and folly in the presence of any of your Charges and especially that you fall not into chidings and intemperate talkings and sudden and violent expressions Never be a party in clamours and scoldings lest your Calling become useless and your Person contemptible Ever remembring that if you cheaply and lightly be engag'd in such low usages with any Person that Person is likely to be lost from all possibility of receiving much good from your Ministry III. The Rules and Measures of Government to be used by Ministers in their respective Cures rule XXV USe no violence to any man to bring him to your opinion but by the word of your proper Ministry by Demonstrations of the Spirit by rational Discourses by excellent Examples constrain them to come in and for other things they are to be permitted to their own liberty to the measures of the Laws and the conduct of their Governours rule XXVI Suffer no quarrel in your Parish and speedily suppress it when it is begun and though all wise men will abstain from interposing in other mens affairs and especially in matters of Interest which men love too well yet it is your Duty here to interpose by perswading them to friendships reconcilements moderate prosecutions of their pretences and by all means you prudently can to bring them to peace and brotherly kindness rule XXVII Suffer no houses of Debauchery of Drunkenness or Lust in your Parishes but implore the assistance of Authority for the suppressing of all such meeting-places and nurseries of Impiety and as for places of publick Entertainment take care that they observe the Rules of Christian Piety and the allowed measures of Laws rule XXVIII If there be any Papists or Sectaries in your Parishes neglect not frequently to confer with them in the spirit of meekness and by the importunity of wise Discourses seeking to gain them But stir up no violences against them but leave them if they be incurable to the wise and merciful disposition of the Laws rule XXIX Receive not the people to doubtful Disputations and let no names of Sects or differing Religions be kept up amongst you to the disturbance of the publick Peace and private Charity and teach not the people to estimate their Piety by their distance from any Opinion but by their Faith in Christ their Obedience to God and the Laws and their Love to all Christian people even though they be deceived rule XXX Think no man considerable upon the point or pretence of a tender Conscience unless he live a good life and in all things endeavour to approve himself void of offence both toward God and Man but if he be an humble Person modest and inquiring apt to learn and desirous of information if he seeks for it in all ways reasonable and pious and is obedient to Laws then take care of him use him tenderly perswade him meekly reprove him gently and deal mercifully with him till God shall reveal that also unto him in which his unavoidable trouble and his temptation lies rule XXXI Mark them that cause Divisions among you and avoid them for such Persons are by the Scripture called Scandals in the abstract they are Offenders and Offences too But if any man have an Opinion let him have it to himself till he can be cur'd of his disease by time and counsel and gentle usages But if he separates from the Church or gathers a Congregation he is proud and is fallen from the Communion of Saints and the Unity of the Catholick Church rule XXXII He that observes any of his people to be zealous let him be careful to conduct that zeal into such channels where there is least danger of inconveniency let him employ it in something that is good let it be press'd to fight
Christians are to be justified by Faith or the works of the Gospel for I shall make it appear that they are both the same thing No man disparages Faith but he that sayes Faith does not work righteousness for he that sayes so sayes indeed it cannot justifie for he sayes that Faith is alone it is Faith only and the words of my Text are plain You see saith S. James that is it is evident to your sense it is as clear as an ocular demonstration that a man is justified by works and not by Faith only My Text hath in it these two Propositions a negative and an affirmative The negative is this 1. By Faith only a man is not justified The affirmative 2. By works also a man is justified When I have briefly discoursed of these I shall only adde such practical considerations as shall make the Doctrines useful and tangible and material 1. By Faith only a man is not justified By Faith only here is meant Faith without Obedience For what do we think of those that detain the Faith in Unrighteousness they have Faith they could not else keep it in so ill a Cabinet but yet the Apostle reckons them amongst the Reprobates for the abominable the Reprobates and the disobedient are all one and therefore such persons for all their Faith shall have no part with faithful Abraham for none are his Children but they that do the works of Abraham Abraham's faith without Abraham's works is nothing for of him that hath faith and hath not works S. James askes can Faith save him Meaning that it is impossible For what think we of those that did miracles in Christs name and in his name cast out Devils Have not they Faith Yes omnem fidem all faith that is alone for they could remove Mountains but yet to many of them Christ will say Depart from me ye workers of iniquity I know you not Nay at last what think we of the Devils themselves have not they faith yes and this faith is not fides miraculorum neither but it is an Operative faith it works a little for it makes them tremble and it may be that is more than they faith does to thee and yet dost thou hope to be saved by a faith that does less to thee than the Devils faith does to him That 's impossible For Faith without works is dead saith S. James It is manus arida saith S. Austin it is a withered hand and that which is dead cannot work the life of grace in us much less obtain eternal life for us In short a man may have faith and yet do the works of unrighteousness he may have faith and be a Devil and then what can such a faith do to him or for him It can do him no good in the present constitution of affairs S. Paul from whose mistaken works much noise hath been made in this question is clear in this particular Nothing in Christ Jesus can avail but Faith working by Charity that is as he expounds himself once and again nothing but a new creature nothing but keeping the Commandments of God If faith be defin'd to be any thing that does not change our natures and make us to be a new Creation unto God if keeping the Commandments be not in the definition of faith it avails nothing at all Therefore deceive not your selves they are the words of our Blessed Lord himself Not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord that is not every one that confesses Christ and believes in him calling Christ Master and Lord shall be sav'd but he that doth the will of my Father which is in Heaven These things are so plain that they need no Commentary so evident that they cannot be denyed and to these I add but this one truth that faith alone without a good life is so far from justifying a sinner that it is one of the greatest aggravations of his condemnation in the whole World For no man can be so greatly damned as he that hath faith for unless he knows his Masters will that is by faith be convinced and assents to the revelations of the will of God he can be beaten but with few stripes but he that believes hath no excuse he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 condemn'd by the sentence of his own heart and therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 many stripes the greater condemnation shall be his portion Natural reason is a light to the Conscience but faith is a greater and therefore if it be not followed it damns deeper than the Hell of the Infidels and uninstructed And so I have done with the Negative Proposition of my Text a man is not justified by faith alone that is by faith which hath not in it Charity and Obedience 2. If faith alone will not do it what will The affirmative part of the Text answers not faith alone but works must be an ingredient a man is justified by works and that is now to be explicated and prov'd It will be absolutely to no purpose to say that faith alone does justifie if when a man is justified he is never the nearer to be saved Now that without Obedience no man can go to Heaven is so evident in holy Scripture that he that denyes it hath no faith There is no peace saith my God unto the wicked and I will not justifie a sinner saith God unless faith purges away our sins it can never justifie Let a man believe all the revelations of God if that belief ends in its self and goes no further it is like physick taken to purge the stomach if it do not work it is so far from bringing health that it self is a new sickness Faith is a great purger and purifier of the soul purifying your hearts by Faith saith the Apostle It is the best physick in the World for a sinful soul but if it does not work it corrupts in the stomack it makes us to rely upon weak Propositions and trifling confidences it is but a dreaming 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Phantastick dream and introduces Pride or superstition swelling thoughts and presumptions of the Divine favour But what saith the Apostle Follow Peace with all men Holiness without which no man can see God Mark that If Faith does not make you charitable and holy talk no more of justification by it for you shall never see the glorious face of God Faith indeed is a title and relation to Christ it is a naming of his names but what then Why then saith the Apostle Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity For let any man consider can the Faith of Christ and the hatred of God stand together Can any man be justified that does not love God Or can any man love God and sin at the same time And does not he love sin that falls under its temptation and obeyes it in the lusts thereof and delights in the vanity and makes excuses for it