of God's Will and Power with subordinate Agents in every and therefore even in sinful actions God's free Election of those whom he purposeth to save of his own grace without any motives in or from themselves the immutability of God's Love and Grace towards the Saints Elect and their certain perseverance therein unto Salvation the Iustification of sinners by the imputed righteousness of Christ apprehended and applyed unto them by a lively faith without the works of the Law These are sound and true and if rightly understood comfortable and right profitable Doctrines And yet they of the Church of Rome have the forehead I will not say to slander my Text alloweth more to blaspheme God and his Truth and the Ministers thereof for teaching them Bellarmine Gretser Maldonat and the Jesuits but none more than our own English Fugitives Bristow Stapleton Parsons Kellison and all the Rabble of that Crew freely spend their mouths in barking against us as if we made God the author of sin as if we would have men sin and be damned by a Stoical fatal necessity sin whether they will or no and be damned whether they deserve it or no as if we opened a gap to all licentiousness and profaneness let them believe it is no matter how they live Heaven is their own cock-sure as if we cryed down good works and condemned charity Slanders loud and false yet easily blown away with one single word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These imputations upon us and our Doctrine are unjust but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let them that thus mis-report us know that without repentance their damnation will be just It would be time not ill spent to discover the grounds of this observation and to press the uses of it something fully But because my aim lyeth another way I can but point at them and pass If seldom Truth scape unslandered marvel not the reasons are evident On God's part on Man's part on the Devil's part God suffereth Man raiseth and the Devil furthereth these slanders against the Truth To begin ordine retrogrado and to take them backwards First on the Devil's part a kind of Contrariety and Antipathy betwixt him and it He being the Father of Lyes and Prince of darkness cannot away with the Truth and with the Light and therefore casteth up slanders as Fogs and Mists against the Truth to bely it and against the Light to darken it Secondly on Mans part And that partly in the understanding when the judgment either of it self weak or else weakned through precipitancy prejudice or otherwise is deceived with fallacies instead of substance and mistaketh seeming inferences for necessary and natural deductions Partly in the Will when men of corrupt minds set themselves purposely against the known truth and out of malicious wilfulness against the strong testimony of their own hearts slander it that so they may disgrace it and them that profess it Partly in the Affections when men overcome by carnal affections are content to cheat their own souls by giving such constructions to God's Truth as will for requital give largest allowance to their practices and so rather choose to crooken the Rule to their own bent than to level themselves and their affections and lives according to the Rule Thirdly on God's part who suffereth his own truth to be slandered and mistaken Partly in his Iustice as a fearful judgment upon wicked ones whereby their hard hearts become yet more hardened and their most just condemnation yet more just Partly in his goodness as a powerful fiery trial of true Doctors whose constancy and sincerity is the more approved with him and the more eminent with men if they flee not when the Wolf cometh but keep their standing and stoutly maintain God's Truth when it is deepliest slandered and hotly opposed And partly in his Wisdom as a rich occasion for those whom he hath gifted for it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to awaken their zeal to quicken up their industry to muster up their abilities to scour up their spiritual armour which else through dis-use might gather rust for the defence and for the rescue of that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that precious truth whereof they are depositaries and wherewith he hath entrusted them These are the Grounds The Uses for instruction briefly are to teach and admonish every one of us that we be not either first so wickedly malicious as without apparent cause to raise any slander or secondly so foolishly credulous as without severe examination to believe any slander or thirdly so basely timorous as to flinch from any part of God's truth for any slander But I must not insist This from the slander Observe fourthly how peremptory the Apostle is in his censure against the slanderers or abusers of holy truths Whose damnation is just Some understand it with reference to the slanderers As we be slander ously reported and as some affirm that we say whose damnation is just that is their damnation is just who thus unjustly slander us Others understand it with reference to that ungodly resolution Let us do evil that good may come whose damnation is just that is their damnation is just for the evil they do who adventure to do any evil under whatsoever pretence of good to come of it Both expositions are good and I rather embrace both than prefer either I ever held it a kind of honest spiritual thirst where there are two sences given of one place both agreeable to the Analogy of Faith and Manners both so indifferently appliable to the words and scope of the place as that it is hard to say which was rather intended though there was but one intended yet to make use of both And so will we Take it the first way and the slanderer may read his doom in it Here is his wages and his portion and the meed and reward of his slander Damnation And it is a just reward He condemneth God's truth unjustly God condemneth him justly for it whose damnation is just If we be countable and we are countable at the day of Judgment for every idle word we speak though neither in it self false nor yet hurtful and prejudicial unto others what less than damnation can they expect that with much falsehood for the thing it self and infinite prejudice in respect of others blaspheme God and his holy Truth But if it be done on purpose and in malice to despight the Truth and the professors thereof I scarce know whether there be a greater sin or no. Maliciously to oppose the known Truth is by most Divines accounted a principal branch of that great unpardonable sin the sin against the holy Ghost by some the very sin it self I dare not say it is so nor yet that it is unpardonable or hath final impenitency necessarily attending it I would be loth to interclude the hope of
least bethink themselves of somewhat else of lighter price to make a cloak of and not to use to so base a purpose so rich a stuff as is this blessed liberty which the Son of God hath purchased with his most precious blood As in nature corruptio optimi pessima so in morality by how much better any thing is in the right use of it by so much is it worse in the abuse As the quickest spirited Wine hath the sowrest lees and the best wit misgoverned is the most pernicious and an Angel when he falleth becometh a Devil so to use this liberty which is a spiritual thing for an occasion to the flesh to take this liberty which if I may so speak is the very livery-cloak of the servant of God and to make it a cloak of maliciousness for the service of sin must needs be presumption in an high degree and an unsufferable abuse Now we see how great a sin it is thus to abuse our liberty it will be needful in the next place to enquire more particularly wherein this abuse consisteth that so we may be the better able to avoid it We are therefore to know that Christian liberty may be used or rather abused for a cloak of maliciousness these four ways following First we may make it a cloak of maliciousness if we hold our selves by virtue thereof discharged from our obedience either to the whole morallaw of God or to any part of it Where to omit those that out of the wretched prophaneness of their own hearts pervert this branch of Evangelical doctrine as they do all the rest to their own destruction As a Spider turneth the juyce of the sweetest and most medicinal herbs into poyson so these turn the grace of God into wantonness and the liberty they have in Christ into a prophane licentiousness Great offenders this way are the Libertines and Antinomists who quite cancel the whole Law of God under the pretence of Christian liberty as if they that were in Christ were no longer tied to yield obedience to the Moral Law which is a pestilent error and of very dangerous consequence Whereas our blessed Saviour himself hath not only professed that he came not to destroy the Law but expresly forbidden any man to think so of him Think not that I came to destroy the Law I came not to destroy it but to fulfil it And St. Paul rejecteth the consequence with an absit as both unreasonable and impious if any man should conclude that by preaching the righteousness of faith the Law were abolished Do we then make void the Law through faith God forbid yea saith he rather we establish the Law Rom. 3. But they interpret those words of Christ in this sence He came not to destroy the Law but to fulfil it that is he came not to destroy it without fulfilling it first but by fulfilling it in his own person he hath destroyed it unto the person of every believer and therefore is Christ said to be the end of the Law to every one that believeth Rom. 10. Whence it is that the faithful are said to be freed from the Law delivered from the Law dead to the Law and to be no longer under the Law and other like speeches there are many every where in the New Testament I acknowledge both their Expositions to be just and all these allegations true yet not sufficient to evict their conclusion Not to wade far into a controversie which I had not so much as a thought to touch upon when I fixed my choice upon this Scripture it shall suffice us to propound one distinction which well heeded and rightly applyed will clear the whole point concerning the abrogation and obligation of the Moral law under the New Testament and cut off many needless curiosities which lead men into error The Law then may be considered either as a Rule or as a Covenant Christ hath freed all believers from the rigour and curse of the Law considered as a Covenant but he hath not freed them from obedience to the Law considered as a Rule And all those Scriptures that speak of the Law as if it were abrogated or annulled take it considered as a Covenant those again that speak of the Law as if it were still in force take it considered as a Rule The Law as a Covenant is rigorous and under that rigour we now are not if we be in Christ but the Law as a Rule is equal and under that equity we still are though we be in Christ. The Law as a Rule only sheweth us what is good and evil what we are to do and not to do He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what the Lord requireth of thee without any condition annexed either of reward if we observe it or of punishment if we transgress it But the Law as a Covenant exacteth punctual and personal performance of every thing that is contained therein with a condition annexed of Gods acceptance and of blessing if we perform it to the full but of his wrath and curse upon us if we fail in any thing Now by reason of transgression we having broken all that Covenant the Law hath his work upon us and involveth us all in the Curse so as by the Covenant of the Law no flesh living can be justified Then cometh in Christ who subjecting himself for our sakes to the Covenant of the Law first fulfilleth it in his own person but in our behalf as our surety and then disannulleth it and instead thereof establisheth a better Covenant for us even the Covenant of Grace So that now as many as believe are free from the Covenant of the Law and from the Curse of the Law and set under a Covenant of Grace and under promises of Grace There is a translation then of the Covenant but what is all this to the Rule That is still where it was even as the nature of good and evil is still the same it was And the Law considered as a Rule can no more be abolished or changed then can the nature of good and evil be abolished or changed It is our singular comfort then and the happiest fruit of our Christian liberty that we are freed by Christ and through faith in him from the Covenant and Curse of the Law but we must know that it is our duty notwithstanding the liberty that we have in Christ to frame our lives and conversations according to the Rule of the Law Which if we shall neglect under the pretence of our Christian liberty we must answer for both both for neglecting our duty and for abusing our liberty And so much for the first way The second way whereby our liberty may be used for a cloak of maliciousness is when we stretch it in the use of things that are indeed indifferent beyond the just bounds of sobriety Many men that would seem to make conscience of
eaten or not for neither if we eat nor if we eat not are we much either the better or the worse for that But the Kingdom of God is righteousness and peace and joy in the holy Ghost It consisteth in the exercise of holy graces and the conscionble performance of unquestioned duties Sincere confession of sin proceeding from an humble and contrite heart constancy in professing the true faith of Christ patience in suffering adversity exemplary obedience to the holy Laws of God fruitfulness in good works these these are things wherein God expecteth to be glorified by us But as for meats and drinks and all other indifferent things inasmuch as they have no intrinsecal moral either good or evil in them but are good or evil only according as they are used well or ill the glory of God is not at all concerned in the using or not using of them otherwise than as our Faith or Temperance or Obedience or Charity or other like Christian grace or vertue is exercised or evidenced thereby 23. I have now done with the first thing and of the most important consideration proposed from the Text to wit the end it self the Glory of God The Amplifications follow the former whereof containeth a description of the party to be glorified That ye may glorifie God If it be demanded Which God For there be Gods many and Lords many It is answered in the Text God even the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ. Of which Title there may be sundry reasons given some more general why it is used at all some more special why it should be used here First this is Stilo novo never found in the Old Testament but very often in the New For this cause I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ. Eph. 3. The God and Father of our Lord Iesus Christ knoweth that I lie not 2 Cor. 11. Blessed be God even the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ 1 Pet. 1. As the Old Covenant ceased upon the bringing in of a new and better Covenant so there was cessation of the old Style upon the bringing in of this new and better Style The old ran thus The God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob proclaimed by God himself when he was about to deliver the posterity of those three godly Patriarchs from the Bondage of Aegypt But having now vouchsafed unto his people a far more glorious deliverance than that from a far more grievious Bondage than that from under Sin Satan Death Hell and the Law whereof that of Aegypt was but a shadow and type he hath quitted that Style and now expecteth to be glorified by this most sweet and blessed Name The Father of our Lord Iesus Christ. Exchanging the name of God a name of greater distance and terror into the Name of Father a name of more nearness and indulgence And taking the additional title or denomination not from the parties delivered as before who were his faithful servants indeed yet but servants but from the person delivering his only begotten and only beloved Son It is first the evangelical Style 24. Secondly this Style putteth a difference between the true God of Heaven and Earth whom only we are to glorifie and all other false and imaginary titular Gods to whom we owe nothing but scorn and detestation The Pagans had scores hundreds some have reckoned thousands of Gods all of their own making Every Nation every City yea almost every House had their several Gods or Godlings Deos topicos Gods many and Lords many But to us saith our Apostle to us Christians there is but one God the Father and one Lord Iesus Christ his Son This is Deus Christianorum If either you hope as Christians to receive grace from that God that alone can give it or mean as Christians to give glory to that God that alone ought to have it this this is he and none other God even the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ. It is a Style of distinction 25. These two Reasons are general There are two other more special for the use of it here in respect of some congruity it hath with the matter or method of the Apostles present discourse For First it might be done with reverence to that Argument which he had so lately pressed and whereof also he had given a touch immediately before in the next former verse and which he also resumed again in the next following verse drawn from the example of Christ. That since Christ in receiving us and condescending to our weaknesses did aim at his Fathers glory so we also should aim at the same end by treading in the same steps We cannot better glorifie God the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ than by receiving one another into our charity care and mutual support as Iesus Christ also received us to the glory of his heavenly Father 26. Secondly since we cannot rightly glorifie God unless we so conceive him as our Father If I be a Father where is mine honour Mal. 1. That they may see your good works and glorifie your Father which is in heaven Mat. 5. it may be the Apostle would have us take knowledge how we came to have a right to our Son-ship and for that end might use the title here given to intimate to us upon what ground it is that we have leave to make so bold with our great Lord and Master as to call him our Father even no other but this because he is the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the only Son of God by nature and generation and through him only it is that we are made the Sons of God by grace and adoption As many as received him to them he gave power to be made the Sons of God Joh. 1. If we be the Sons of God we are made so but he is the Son of God not made nor created but begotten I go to my Father and to your Father saith he himself Ioh. 20. mine first and then and therefore yours also He is medium unionis like the corner stone wherein both sides of the building unite or like the ladder whereon Iacob saw Angels ascending and descending All intercourse 'twixt Heaven and Earth God and Man is in and through him If any grace come from God to us it is by Christ If any glory come from us to God it is by Christ too Unto him be glory in the Church by Christ Iesus Eph. 3. And this shall suffice to have spoken concerning the former Amplification briefly because it seemeth not to conduce so much nor so nearly to the Apostles main scope here as doth that other which now followeth respecting the manner with one mind and with one mouth 27. Wherein omitting for brevities sake such advantages as from the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 might be raised for farther enlargement observe first that whereas he nameth two
Only I may not dissemble what my own fears have long been and yet are That if things shall still go on according as they have begun and hitherto proceeded the application that some have made of that passage Iohn 11. 48. Venient Romani capient gentem nostram will prove but too true a Prophecy and Popery will over-run all at the last Whether there be just cause so to fear or no I leave it to wiser men to judge when together with what hath been already said concerning the great scandals and advantages given to the Papists by our confusions they shall have duly considered the probability of what I shall now farther say It is a wonder to see in how short a time our Anti-ceremonian Brethren are strangely both multiplied and divided multiplied in their number but divided by their opinions and subdivided into so many several tribes and familes that their power is nothing so much encreased by that multiplication as it is weakned by these divisions In as much as many of those Sects into which they have spread and diffused themselves are not more opposite to the Truth the only property wherein they all agree than they are one to another in so far that the establishment of any one cannot be but by the destruction of all or most of the rest This experience giveth us to see How impossible a thing it is they should long hold together in one entire body for their own preservation But whilest they are still crumbling into fractions and factions biting and ready to devour one another a vigilant adversary that is intent upon all advantages and opportunities may when he spieth his time over-master them with much ease and little resistance Whereas the Papists on the other side are by the very nature as I may say of their Religion and the fundamental Principle thereof viz. To believe as the Church believeth tyed together in a fast unity among themselves against all opposers of their Church or of any point of Faith designed by the Church So that these holding altogether as an imbodied Army and those dispersed abroad in scattered troops and many small parties Who is like to become Master of the Field is no hard matter to judge Neither will the supposed and I fear truly supposed greater number of Atheists than either Papists or Sectaries be any hinderance to the Papists for finally prevailing Because it is not for the interest of the Atheist and his Religion pardon the boldness of the Catachresis to engage either for or against any side farther than a jeer But to let them fight it out keep himself quiet till they have done and then clap in with him that getteth the day He that is of no Religion can make a shift to be of any rather than suffer And the Atheist though he be in truth and in heart neither Protestant nor Papist nor any thing else yet can he be in face and outward comportment either Protestant or Papist or any thing else Iew or Turk if need be as will best serve his present turn That this is their mind some of them in a bravery have given us to understand plainly enough and in print § XXIV And is it not high time then trow we to look about us Hannibal ad portas When the danger is so great and so near withal even at the door shall we be so wretchlesly wilful as neither to open our eyes to see it our selves nor endure with patience that any body else should tell us of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What I have now said how it will be taken I know not Prophets are seldom welcome that prophesie unwelcome things But truly at the sad apprehension of the dangerous condition we now stand in and in zeal for the safety and honour of my dear Mother the Church of England which hath nourished me up to become a Christian and a Protestant that is to say a pure pute Christian without any other addition or Epithete my heart waxed hot within me and the fire so kindled that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I could not forbear but upon the first opportunity offered once more to give Vent thereunto by laying open the second time my inmost thoughts to the view of the World Which I have done with the greatest plainness and freedom that avoiding bitterness was possible for me to do I was willing to sharpen my style I confess that it might enter as it was but needful where the skin was callous But with the only intention as the great Searcher of all hearts knoweth by putting the Patient to a little smart at the first piercing of the Sore to give future ease to the part affected and not at all by angering the Sore to make it worse With which Protestation I hope the more sober among them will rest satisfied I mean the Moderate Presbyterian especially Of which sort I know many whom I verily believe to be godly and conscientious men though in error and whom I therefore love and honour These are the only adversaries in this controversie whose spirits are in a disposition and capacity to be wrought upon in a rational way As for the rest I mean the rigid Scotised through-paced Presbyterian on the one side and the giddy Enthusiast on the other such is their either obstinacy or madness that it is vain to think of doing any good upon them by argument till it shall please God to make them of more humble and teachable spirits I entreat the Reader if he shall meet with any thing herein written that hath any bitterness in it or but sharpness more than one that would deal plainly cannot avoid that he would take it as meant against these last only and not at all against those of the former rank whom I never meant to exasperate Hear the conclusion of the whole matter Read without gall or prejudice Let not truth fare the worse for the Plainness Catch not at Syllables and Phrases Study and seek the Churches peace Judge not anothers servant who must stand and fall to his own Master Keep Faith and a good Conscience Bear one anothers Burdens and so fulfil the Law of Christ. Consider what hath been said and pray to the Lord to give us all a right understanding in all things Amen Amen Botheby Paynell July 13. MDCLVII Placere singulis volam sed ut prosim Nec displicere metuam dummodo prosim Scazon THE SUMMARY of CONTENTS Of the several ensuing SERMONS Sermon I. Ad Clerum on Rom. 14. 3. Sect. 1. THE Occasion of the TEXT 2 Scope of the TEXT 3 Coherence of the TEXT 4 and Division of the TEXT 5 POINT I. Of not Despising others 6 Be they never so weak 7 and we never so strong 8 Both for the Sins sake to the Despisers 9 and for the Scandals sake in the Despised 10-11 POINT II. Of not Judging others 12 with the true meaning thereof And four Reasons 13 viz. 1. The want of Commission
is such a Restraint 33 34 2. That it is from God 35 3. That it is from the mercy of God and therefore called Grace 36 Inferences from the Consideration of God's Restraint 37 I. As it lyeth upon others 1. toobless God for our Preservation 38 2. not to trust wicked men too far 39 3. nor to fear them too much 40 4. to endeavour to restrain others from Sinning 41 II. As it lyeth upon our selves 1. To be humble under it 42 2. to entertain the means of such Restraint with Thankfulness 43 3. to pray that God would restrain our Corruptions 44 4. but especially to pray and labour for sanctifying Grace Sermon VII Ad Populum on 1 Pet. 2. 16. Sect. 1 2 THE Occasion Scope of the TEXT 3 5 Coherence and of the TEXT 6 Division of the TEXT 7 8 OBSERVATION I Christian Liberty to be maintained 9 12 with the Explication 13 17 and Five Reasons thereof 18 20 Inferences I. Not to usurp upon the Liberty of others 21 24 II. Nor to betray our own 25 Observation II. Christian Liberty not to be abused 26 28 The words explained and thence 29 31 Three Reasons of the Point 32 34 Four abuses of Christian Liberty viz. I. by casting off the Obligation of the moral Law 35 36 II. by exceeding the bounds of Sobriety 37 III. by giving Scandal to others 38 IV. by disobeying lawful Superiours 39-40 The Grounds and Objections of the Anti-Ceremonians 41-46 propounded and particularly answered 47-50 How mens Laws bind the Conscience 51-52 OBSERVATION III. We being the Servants of God Which is of all other 53-54 1. the most Just Service 55 2. the most Necessary Service 56-57 3. the most Easie Service 58 4. the most Honourable Service 59 5. and the most Profitable Service 60 Ought to carry our selves as his Servants with all 61-63 I. Reverence to his Person in 3 branches 64-66 II. Obedience to his Will both in Doing and Suffering 67-70 III. Faithfulness in his Business in 3 branches 69 The Conclusion AD CLERUM The first Sermon ROM 〈◊〉 _ Meats accounting them Clean or Unclean and of Days accounting them Holy or Servile according as they stood under the Levitical Law These latter St. Paul calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Weak in the Faith those former then must by the Law of Opposition be strong in the Faith It would have become both the one sort and the other notwithstanding they differed in their private Iudgments yet to have preserved the common Peace of the Church and laboured the edification not the ruine one of another the strong by affording faithful instruction to the Consciences of the weak and the weak by allowing favourable construction to the actions of the strong But whilst either measured other by themselves neither one nor other did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as our Apostle elsewhere speaketh Walk uprightly according to the truth of the Gospel Faults and offences there were on all hands The Strong faulty in contemning the Weak the Weak faulty in condemning the Strong The Strong proudly scorned the weak as silly and superstitious for making scruple at some such things as themselves firmly believed were Lawful The weak rashly censured the Strong as Prophane and Irreligious for adventuring on some such things as themselves deeply suspected were unlawful The blessed Apostle desirous all things should be done in the Church in love and unto edification aequâ lance and eódem Charitatis moderamine as Interpreters speak taketh upon him to arbitrate and to mediate in the business and like a just Umpire layeth his hand upon both parties unpartially sheweth them their several oversights and beginneth to draw them to a fair and honourable composition as thus The strong shall remit somewhat of his superciliousness in disesteeming and despising the Weak and the Weak he shall abate something of his edge and acrimony in judging and condemning the Strong If the Parties will stand to this Order it will prove a blessed agreement for so shall brotherly Love be maintained Scandals shall be removed the Christian Church shall be edified and God's Name shall be glorified This is the scope of my Text and of the whole Chapter In the three first Verses whereof there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 First there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the first Verse the Proposal of a general Doctrine as touching the usage of weak ones with whom the Church is so to deal as that it neither give offence to nor take offence at the weakness of any Him that is weak in the Faith receive you but not to doubtful Disputations Next there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the second Verse a Declaration of the former general Proposal by instancing in a particular case touching the difference of Meats There is one man strong in the Faith he is infallibly resolved there is no meat unclean of it self or if received with thankfulness and sobriety unlawful and because he knoweth he standeth upon a sure ground 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he is confident he may eat any thing and he useth his Liberty accordingly eating indifferently of all that is set before him making no question for Conscience sake One man believeth he may eat all things There is another man weak in the Faith he standeth yet unresolved and doubtful whether some kinds of Meats as namely those forbidden in the Law be clean or he is rather carried with a strong suspicion that they are unclean out of which timorousness of Judgment he chuseth to forbear those Meats and contenteth himself with the fruits of the Earth Another who is weak eateth Herbs This is Species facti this is the case Now the question is In this case what is to be done for the avoidance of scandal and the maintainance of Christian Charity And this question my Text resolveth in this third Verse wherein is contained 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 St. Paul's judgment or his counsel rather and advice upon the Case Let not him that eateth despise c. The remainder of the Verse and of the Chapter being spent in giving reasons of the judgment in this and another like case concerning the difference and observation of days I have made choice to intreat at this time of St. Paul's advice as useful for this Place and Auditory and the present Assembly Which advice as the Parties and the faults are is also two-fold The Parties two He that eateth that is the Strong and he that eateth not that is the Weak The Faults likewise two The strong mans fault that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 despising of his brothers Infirmity and the weak mans fault that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 judging of his Brothers liberty Proportionably the parts of the advice accommodated to the Parties and their Faults are two The one for the Strong that he despise not Let not him that eateth despise him that
regarding the secret whisperings or murmurings no nor yet the loud roarings and bellowings of their own Consciences there against Stat contra ratio secretam gannit in aurem It doth so but yet they turn a deaf ear to it and despise it Wonder not if when they out of the terrors of their troubled Consciences shall howl and roar in the ears of the Almighty for mercy or for some mitigation at least of their torment he then turn a deaf ear against them and despise them To him that knoweth to do good and doth it not to him it is sin Iames 4. Sin not to be excused by any plea or colour But how much more inexcusably then is it sin to him that knoweth the evil he should not do and yet will do it There is not a proner way to Hell than to sin against Conscience Happy is he which condemneth not himself in that which he alloweth but most wretched is he that alloweth himself to the practice of that which in his judgment he cannot but condemn Neither maketh it any difference at all here whether a man be otherwise sui juris or no. For although there be a great respect due to the higher powers in doubtful cases as I shall touch anon yet where the thing required is simply unlawful and understood so to be Inferiours must absolutely resolve to disobey whatsoever come of it God's faithful servants have ever been most resolute in such exigents We are not careful to answer thee in this matter belike in a matter of another nature they would have taken care to have given the King a more satisfactory at least a more respective answer but in this matter be it known to thee O King that we will not serve thy gods Da veniam Imperator c You know whose answers they were If we be sure God hath forbidden it we sin against our own consciences if we do it at the command of any mortal man whosoever or upon any worldly inducement whatsoever That is the first Conclusion The second is this If a man be in his conscience fully perswaded that a thing is evil and unlawful which yet in truth is not so but lawful the thing by him so judged unlawful cannot by him be done without sin Even an erroneous conscience bindeth thus far that a man cannot go against it and be guiltless because his practice should then run cross to his judgment and so the thing done could not be of Faith For if his reason judge it to be evil and yet he will do it it argueth manifestly that he hath a will to do evil and so becometh a transgressor of that General Law which bindeth all men to eschew all evil Yet in this case we must admit of some difference according to the different nature of the things and the different condition of the persons For if the things so judged unlawful be in their own Nature not necessary but indifferent so as they may either be done or left undone without sin and the Person withal be sui juris in respect of such things no superiour power having determined his liberty therein then although he may not do any of these things by reason of the contrary perswasion of his conscience without sin yet he may without sin leave them undone As for example Say a man should hold it utterly unlawful as some erroneously do to play at cards or dice or to lay a wager or to cast lots in trivial matters if it be in truth lawful to do every of these things as I make no question but it is so they be done with sobriety and with due circumstances yet he that is otherwise perswaded of them cannot by reason of that perswasion do any of them without sin Yet forsomuch as they are things no way necessary but indifferent both in their nature and for their use also no superiour power having enjoyned any man to use them therefore he that judgeth them unlawful may abstain from them without sin and so indeed he is in conscience bound to do so long as he continueth to be of that opinion But now on the other side if the things so mis-judged to be unlawful be any way necessary either in respect of their own nature or by the injunction of authority then the person is by that his error brought into such a strait between two sins as he can by no possible means avoid both so long as he persisteth in that his error For both if he do the thing he goeth against the perswasion of his Conscience and that is a great sin and if he do it not either he omitteth a necessary duty or else disobeyeth lawful Authority and to do either of both is a sin too Out of which snare since there is no way of escape but one which is to rectifie his Iudgment and to quit his pernicious Error it concerneth every man therefore that unfeignedly desireth to do his duty in the fear of God and to keep a good Conscience not to be too stiff in his present apprehensions but to examine well the Principles and Grounds of his opinions strongly suspecting that wind that driveth him upon such rocks to be but a blast of his own fancy rather than a breathing of the holy Spirit of truth Once this is most certain that whosoever shall adventure to do any thing repugnant to the Judgment of his own Conscience be that Judgment true or be it false shall commit a grievous sin in so doing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it cannot be of Faith and whatsoever is not of Faith is sin That is now where the Conscience apparently inclineth the one way But say the scales hang even so as a man cannot well resolve whether way he should rather take now he is in one mind by and by in another but constant in neither right S. Iames his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a double minded man This is it we call a doubting conscience concerning which the second question is what a man ought to do in case of doubtfulness Perfect directions here as in most deliberatives would require a large discourse because there are so many considerable circumstances that may vary the case especially in respect of the cause from which that doubtfulness of mind may spring Many times it ariseth from meer fickleness of mind or weakness of judgment as the lightest things are soonest driven out of their place by the wind Even as S. Iames saith a double minded man is wavering in all his ways and S. Paul speaketh of some that were like children off and on soon wherried about with every blast of doctrine Sometimes it proceedeth from tenderness of Conscience which is indeed a very blessed and gracious thing but yet as tender things may soon miscarry if they be not the more choicely handled very abnoxious through Satans diligence and subtilty to be wrought upon to dangerous inconveniences Sometimes it
which only we affirm that it may be found in an Unbeliever and a Reprobate and that is a Natural or Moral integrity when the heart of a meer natural man is careful to follow the direction and guidance of right reason according to that light of Nature or Revelation which is in him without hollowness halting and hypocrisse Rectus usus Naturalium we might well call it the term were fit enough to express it had not the Papists and some other Sectaries with sowring it by the Leaven of their Pelagianism rendred it suspicious The Philosophers and learned among the Heathen by that which they call a good conscience understand no other thing than this very Integrity whereof we now speak Not that an Unbeliever can have a good conscience taken in strict propriety of truth and in a spiritual sence For the whole man being corrupted through the fall of Adam the conscience also is wrapped up in the common pollution so that to them that are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure but even their mind and conscience is defiled as speaketh St. Paul Tit. 1. and being so defiled can never be made good till their hearts be sprinkled from that pollution by the blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God and till the Conscience be purged by the same blood from dead works to serve the living God as speaketh the same Apostle Heb. 9. and 10. But yet a good Conscience in that sence as they meant it a Conscience morally good many of them had who never had Faith in Christ nor so much as the least inkling of the Doctrine of Salvation By which Not having the Law they were a Law unto themselves doing by nature many of the things contained in the Law and choosing rather to undergo the greatest miseries as shame torment exile yea death it self or any thing that could befal them than wilfully to transgress those rules and notions and dictates of piety and equity which the God of Nature had imprinted in their Consciences Could heathen men and unbelievers have taken so much comfort in the testimony of an excusing Conscience as it appeareth many of them did if such a Conscience were not in the kind that is Morally Good Or how else could St. Paul have made that protestation he did in the Council Men and Brethren I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day At least if he meant to include as most of the learned conceive he did the whole time of his life as well before his conversion as after Balaam was but a cursed Hypocrite and therefore it was but a Copy of his countenance and no better for his heart even then hankered after the wages of unrighteousness when he looked asquint upon Balak's liberal offer with this answer If Balak would give me his house full of Gold and silver I cannot go beyond the word of the Lord my God to do less or more But I assure my self many thousands of Unbelievers in the world free from his hypocrisie would not for ten times as much as he there spake of have gone beyond the Rules of the Law of Nature written in their hearts to have done either less or more Abimelech seemeth to be so affected at least in this particular action and passage with Abraham wherein God thus approveth his integrity Yea I know that thou didst this in the integrity of thine heart The Reason of which moral integrity in men unregenerate and meerly natural is that imperium Rationis that power of natural Conscience and Reason which it hath and exerciseth over the whole man doing the office of a Law-giver and having the strength of a Law They are a Law unto themselves saith the Apostle Rom. 2. As a Law it prescribeth what is to be done as a Law it commandeth that what is prescribed be done as a Law it proposeth rewards and punishments accordingly as what it prescribeth and commandeth is done or not done Abimelech's own Reason by the light of Nature informed him that to take another mans Wife from him was injurious and enjoyneth him therefore as he will avoid the horrors and upbraidings of a condemning heart by no means to do it Resolved accordingly to do and to obey the Law of Reason written in his heart before he durst take Sarah into his house he maketh inquiry first whether she were a single woman or a wife and therefore although upon mis-information he took another mans wife unwitting that she was so he pleadeth here and that justly the integrity of his heart And from obedience to the same Law especially spring those many rare examples of Iustice Temperance Gratitude Beneficence and other moral vertues which we read of in Heathen men not without admiration which were so many strong evidences also of this moral integrity of their hearts A point that would bear much enlargement if we intended to amplifie it by Instances and did not rather desire to draw it briefly into use by Inferences A just condemnation it may he first to many of us who call our selves Christians and Believers and have many blessed means of direction and instruction for the due ordering of our hearts and lives which those Heathens wanted yet come so many paces nay leagues short of them both in the detestation of vicious and gross enormities and in the conscionable practice of many offices of vertue Among them what strictness of Iustice which we either slack or pervert What zeal of the common good which we put off each man to other as an unconcerning thing What remission of private injuries which we pursue with implacable revenge What contempt of honours and riches which we so pant after so adore What temperance and frugality in their provisions wherein no excess satisfieth us What free beneficence to the poor and to pious uses whereto we contribute penuriously and with grudging What conscience of Oaths and Promises which we so slight What reverence of their Priests whom we count as the scum of the people What loathing of swinish drunkenness wherein some of us glory What detestation of Usury as a monster in nature whereof some of ours make a trade Particularities are infinite but what should I say more Certainly unless our righteousnesses exceed theirs we shall never come to heaven but how shall we escape the nethermost hell if our unrighteousnesses exceed theirs Shall not Uncircumcision which is by nature if it keep the Law judge thee who by the Letter and Circumcision dost transgress the Law said St. Paul to the Iew Make application to thy self thou that art a Christian. Secondly if even in Unbelievers and Hypocrites and Castaways there may be in particular actions integrity and singleness of heart then it can be but an uncertain Rule for us to judge of the true state of our own and other mens hearts by what they are in some few particular actions Men
not to part with a jot of that liberty wherewith Christ hath entrusted us by making our selves the servants of men Especially since we cannot so do Secondly without manifest wrong to Christ nor thirdly without great dishonour to God Not without wrong to Christ. St. Paul therefore disputeth it as upon a ground of right 1 Cor. 7. Ye are bought with a price saith he be ye not the servants of men and in the next Chapter before that ye are not your own for you are bought with a price As if he had said Though it were a great weakness in you to put your selves out of your own power into the power of others by making your selves their servants yet if you were your own there should be no injury done thereby to any third person but unto whosoever should complain as if he were wronged you might return this reasonable answer Friend I do thee no wrong Is it not lawful for me to do as I will with mine own But saith he this is not your case you are not your own but Christs He hath bought you with his most precious blood he hath payed a valuable rather an invaluable price for you and having bought you and payed for you you are now his and you cannot dispose your selves in any other service without apparent wrong to him Neither only do we injure Christ by making our selves the servants of men but we dishonour God also which is a third reason For to whom we make our selves servants him we make our Lord and God The covetous worldling therefore by serving Mammon maketh Mammon his God which made St. Paul two several times to set the brand of Idolatry upon covetousness the covetous man which is an Idolater Eph. 5. and covetousness which is Idolatry Col. 3. And the voluptuous Epicure is therefore said to make his belly his God Phil. 3. because he serveth his own belly as the phrase is Rom. 16. Neither can I imagine upon what other ground the Devil should be called the God of this world than this that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the men of this evil world by doing him service do so make a God of him For Service is a principal part of that honour that belongeth to God alone and whereof in his jealousie he will not endure that any part should be given away from him to another Ipsi soli servies thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve We cannot serve any other but to his great dishonour Yea and our own too which may stand for a fourth reason Ye see your calling brethren saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 1. 26. He would have men take notice of their Christian Calling it is a holy and a high calling that so they might walk worthy of it and carry themselves in every respect answerably thereunto Now by our Calling we are Free-men for Brethren you have been called unto liberty Gal. 5. or which is all one to the service of God And being so we infinitely abase our selves and disparage our Calling when of free-men we become slaves and make our selves of Gods mens servants incomparably more to our own dishonour than if one that is free of a rich Company and hath born Office in it should for base respects bind himself Apprentice again with a Master of poor condition in some pedling Trade It is diminutio capitis as the Civilians call it for a man to descend from a higher to a lower condition of the three degrees whereof that is esteemed the greatest maxima diminutio capitis which is with loss of liberty Leo the Emperour therefore by special and severe constitution as you may see it in The Novels forbad all Freemen within the Empire the sale of their liberties calling it facinus in those that were so presumptuous as to buy them and no less than folly yea madness dementia and vesania in those that were so base as to sell them not without some indignation at the former Laws for suffering such an indignity to be so long practised without either chastisement or restraint And if he justly censured them as men of abject minds that would for any consideration in the world willingly forego their civil and Roman liberty what flatness of spirit possesseth us if we wilfully betray our Christian and spiritual liberty Whereby besides the dishonour we do also which is the fifth Reason and whereunto I will add no more with our own hands pull upon our own heads a great deal of unnecessary cumber For whereas we might draw an easie yoke carry a light burden observe commandments that are not grievous and so live at much hearts-ease in the service of God and of Christ by putting our selves into the service of men we thrust our necks into a hard yoke of bondage such as neither we nor any of our fathers were ever able to bear we lay upon our own shoulders 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 heavy and importable burdens and subject our selves to Ordinances which are both grievous and unprofitable and such are so far from preserving those that use them from perishing that themselves perish in the using Now against this liberty which if we will answer the trust reposed in us and neither wrong Christ nor dishonour God nor yet debase and encumber our selves where we should not we must with our utmost power maintain The Offenders are of two sorts to wit such as either injuriously encroach upon the liberty of others or else unworthily betray away their own The most notorious of the former sort are the Bishops of Rome whose usurpations upon the Consciences of men shew them to be true successors of the Scribes and Pharisees in laying heavy burdens upon mens shoulders which they ought not and in rejecting the Word of God to establish their own Traditions rather than the Successors of St. Peter who forbiddeth dominatum in Cleris in the last Chapter of this Epistle at Vers. 3 To teach their own judgments to be infallible to make their definitions an universal and unerring Rule of Faith to stile their Decrees and Constitutions Oracles to assume to themselves all power in Heaven and Earth to require subjection both to their Laws and Persons as of necessity unto salvation to suffer themselves to be called by their Parasites Dominus Deus noster Papa and Optimum maximum supremum in terris numen all which and much more is done and taught and professed by the Popes and in their behalf if all this will not reach to St. Paul's exaltari supra omne quod vocatur Deus yet certainly and no modest man can deny it it will amount to as much as St. Peter's dominari in Cleris even to the exercising of such a Lordship over the Lords Heritage the Christian Church as will become none but the Lord himself whose Heritage
poorest beggar within his Realm as to protect him from violence and to require an account of his blood though it should be spilt by the hand of a Lord. 17. And yet behold a greater than Iob although I take it he was a King too within his own Territories a greater than any of the great Kings of the earth ready to teach us this duty by his example even our Lord Iesus Christ and the same mind should be in us that was in him And what was that He was pleased so far to honour us base sinful unworthy Creatures as we were as for our sakes to lay aside his own greatness emptying and divesting himself of glory and Majesty making himself of no reputation and taking upon him the form of a Servant Ill do they follow either his Example or his Apostles Doctrine here who think themselves too good to condescend to men of low estate by doing them any office of service or respect though they need it never so much crave it never so oft deserve it never so well And they who look another way in the day of their brothers distress as the Priest and Levite passed by the wounded man in the Parable without regard And not to multiply particulars all they who having power and opportunity thereunto neglect either to reward those that have worth in them according to their merit or to protect those that are wronged according to their innocency or to relieve those that are in want according to their necessity 18. There are a third sort that corrupt a good Text with an ill gloss by putting in a conditional limitation like the botching in of a course shred into a finâ— garment as thus The Magistrate shall have his Tribute the Minister his Tythâ— and so every other man his due honour if so be he carry himself worthily and as he ought to do in his place and so as to deserve it In good time But I pray you then first to argue the case a little with thee whoever thou art that thus glossest Who must judge of his carriage and whether he deserve such honour yea or no Why that thou hopest thou art well enough able to do thy self Sure we cannot but expect good justice where he that is a party will allow no other to be judge but himself Where the debtor must arbitrate what is due to the creditor things are like to come a fair reckoning 19. But secondly how durst thou distinguish where the Law distinguishes not Where God commandeth he looketh to be answered with obedience and dost thou think to come off with subtilties and distinctions The Precept here in the Text is plain and peremptory admitteth no Equivocation Exception or Reservation suggesteth nothing that should make it reasonable to restrain the Universality expressed therein by any such limitation and therefore will not endure to be eluded with any forced Gloss. 20. Least of all thirdly with such a Gloss as the Apostle hath already precluded by his own comment in the next verse where he biddeth servants to be subject to their Masters not only to the good and gentle but to the froward also and such as would be ready to buffet them when they had done no fault Such Masters sure could challenge no great honour from their servants titulo mâ—ritâ— and as by way of desert But yet there belonged to them jâ—â— dominii and by vertue of their Mastership the honour of Obedience and Subjection Which honour due unto them by that right they had a good title to and it might not be detained from them either in part or in whole by cavilling at their desert 21. But tell me fourthly in good earnest dost thou believe that another mans neglect of his duty can discharge thee from the obligation of thine dic Quintiliane colorem Canst thou produce any publick Law or private Contract or sound Reason whereon to ground or but handsom Colour wherewith to varnish such an imagination Fac quodtuum est do thou thy part therefore and honour him according to his place howsoever He shall answer and not thou for his unworthiness if he deserve it not but thou alone shalt answer for the neglect of thine own duty if thou performest it not 22. Lastly ex ore tuo When thou sayest thou wilt honour him according to his place if he deserve it dost thou not observe that thou art still unjust by thy own confession For where place and merit concur there is a double honour due The Elders that rule well are worthy of double honour 1 Tim. 5. There is one honour due to the place and another to merit He that is in the place though without desert is yet worthy of a single honour for his place sake and justice requireth he should have it But if he deserve well in his place by rightly discharging his duty therein he is then worthy of a double honour and justice requireth he should have that too Consider now how unjust thou art If he deserve well sayest thou he shall have the honour due to his place otherwise not Thou mightest as well say in plain terms If he be worthy of double honour I can be content to afford the single otherwise be must be content to go without any Now what justice what conscience in this dealing where two parts are due to allow but one and where one is due to allow just none 23. But I proceed no further in this argument having purposely omitted sundry things that occurred to my meditations herein and contracted the rest that I might have time to speak something to the latter Precept also Love the brotherhood To which I now pass hoping to dispatch it with convenient brevity observing the same method as before Quid nominis Quid juris Quid facti What we are to do and Why and How we perform it 24. First then for the meaning of the words we must know that as Adam and Christ are the two roots of mankind Adam as in a state of Nature and Christ as in a state of Grace so there is a twofold brotherhood amongst men correspondent thereunto First a Brotherhood of Nature by propagation from the loins of Adam as we are men and secondly a Brotherhood of Grace by profession of the faith of Christ as we are Christian men As men we are members of that great body the World and so all men that live within the compass of the World are Brethren by a more general communion of Nature As Christians we are members of that mystical body the Church and so all Christian men that live within the compass of the Church are Brethren by a more peculiar Communion of Faith And as the Moral Law bindeth us to love all men as our Brethren and partakers with us of the same common Nature in Adam so the Evangelical Law bindeth to love all Christians as our Brethren and partakers with us of the same common faith in
an universal concurrence of judgment as there is in the main fundamental points of the Christian Faith And if we were so wise as we might and should be to make the right use of it it would not stumble us a whit in the belief of our Religion that Christians differ so much as they do in many things but rather mightily confirm us in the assurances thereof that they agree so well as they do almost in any thing And it may be a great comfort to every well meaning soul that the simple belief of those certain truths whereon all parties are in a manner agreed may be and ordinarily is sufficient for the salvation of all them who are sincerely careful according to that measure of light and means that God hath vouchsafed them to actuate their Faith with Piety Charity and good Works so making this great Mystery to become unto them as it is in its self Mysterium Pietatis a Mystery of Godliness Which is the last point proposed the Quale to which I now pass 22. As the corrupt Doctrine of Antichrist is not only a Doctrine of Error but of Impiety too called therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The mystery of iniquity 2 Thes. 2. So the wholsom doctrine of Christ is not only a doctrine of Truth but of Piety too and is therefore termed here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Mystery of Godliness Which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Godliness since there appeareth not any great necessity in the Context to restrain it to that more peculiar sence wherein both the Greek and English word are sometimes used namely to signifie the right manner of Gods Worship according to his word in opposition to all idolatrous superstitious or false Worships practised among the Heathens I am the rather enclined to understand it here as many Interpreters have done in the fuller Latitude as it comprehenderh the whole duty of a Christian man which he standeth bound by the command of God in his Law or of Christ in his Gospel to perform 23. Verum and Bonum we know are near of kin the one to the other And the spirit of God who is both the Author and the Revealer of this Mystery as he is the spirit of truth Joh. 14. so is he also the spirit of holiness Rom. 1. And it is part of his work to sanctific the heart with grace as well as to enlighten the mind with knowledge Our Apostle therefore sometimes mentioneth Truth and Godliness together teaching us thereby that we should take them both into our care together If any man consent not to the words of our Lord Iesus Christ and to the doctrine which is after Godliness 1 Tim. 6. And Tit. 1. according to the Faith of Gods Elect and acknowledging of the Truth which is after Godliness And here in express terms The Mystery of Godliness And that most rightly whether we consider it in the Scope Parts or Conservation of it 24. First the general Scope and aim of Christianity is by the mercy of God founded on the merits of Christ to bring men on through Faith and Godliness to Salvation It was not in the purpose of God in publishing the Gospel and thereby freeing us from the personal obligation rigour and curse of the Law so to turn us loose and lawless to do whatsoever should seem good in our own eyes follow our own crooked wills or gratifie any corrupt lust but to oblige us rather the faster by these new benefits and to incite us the more effectually by Evangelical promises to the earnest study and pursuit of Godliness The Gospel though upon quite different grounds bindeth us yet to our good behaviour in every respect as deep as ever the Law did if not in some respects deeper allowing no liberty to the flesh for the fulfilling of the lusts thereof in any thing but exacting entire sanctity and purity both of inward affection and outward conversation in all those that embrace it The grace of God appearing in the revelation of this mystery as it bringeth along with it an offer of salvation to all men so it teacheth all men that have any real purpose to lay hold on so gracious an offer to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live righteously and soberly and godly in this present world 25. It is not to be wondered at if all false Religions give allowance to some ungodliness or other when the very Gods whom they worship give such encouragements thereunto by their lewd examples The Gods of the Pagans were renowned for nothing so much most of them as for their vices Mars a bloody God Bacchus a drunken God Mercury a cheating God and so proportionably in their several kinds all the rest Their great Capital God Iupiter guilty of almost all the Capital vices And where the Gods are naught who can imagine the Religion should be good Their very mysteria sacra as they called them were so full of all wickedness and filthy abominations as was already in part touched but is fully discovered by Clemens Alexandrinus Lactantius Arnobius Tertullian and other of the Ancients of our Religion that it was the wisest point in all their Religion to take such strict order as they did for the keeping of them secret 26. But it is the honour and prerogative of the Christian Religion that it alone alloweth of no wickedness But as God himself is holy so he requireth an holy Worship and holy Worshippers He exacteth the mortification of all evil lusts and the sanctification of the whole man body soul and spirit and that in each of these throughout Every one that nameth himself from the name of Christ doth ipso facto by the very taking of that blessed name upon him and daring to stile himself Christian virtually bind himself to depart from all iniquity nor so only but to endeavour also after the example of him whose name otherwise he unworthily usurpeth to be just merciful temperate humble meek patient charitable to get the habits and to exercise the acts of these and all other holy graces and vertues Nay more the Gospel imposeth upon us some moral strictnesses which the Stoicks themselves or whoever else were the most rigid Masters of Morality never so much as thought of Nay yet more it exalteth the Moral Law of God himself given by Moses to the People of Israel to a higher pitch than they at least as they commonly understood the Law took themselves thereby obliged unto That a man should forsake all his dearest friends yea and deny his own dearest self too for Christs sake and yet for Christs sake at the same time love his deadliest enemies That he should take up his Cross and if need were lay down his life not only for his great Master but even for the meanest of his fellow-servants too That he should exult with joy and abound in hope in the midst of tribulations of persecutions of death it self Surely the
with the intolerable weight of our sins whereby we have deserved them or secondly with the weight of those everlasting grievous pains in Hell which by the sharpness of our short sufferings here if we make the right use of them to be thereby humbled unto repentance by the mercy of God we shall escape or thirdly with that so exceeding and eternal weight of glory and joy in the Kingdom of Heaven which by the free goodness of our God we expect in compensation of our light and momentany afflictions here or fourthly with the weight of those far greater and heavier trials which other our brethren and fellow servants either of our own or former times have undergone before us and gone through them all with admirable patience and courage 46. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 None of all these singly but are of singular virtue towards the desired effect but all of them together if aptly applied can hardly fail the cure Especially if you add thereunto that one Ingredient more which is alone here expressed indeed the most soveraign of all the rest as the object of this analogy or consideration in the Text to wit the incomparable bitter sufferings of our ever blessed Lord and Master Iesus Christ. 47. Then farther in this Objection as it is amplified in this short Text only there are sundry particulars considerable As namely First Who it was that suffered Consider him his Greatness his Innocency his Goodness Secondly how he suffered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he endured also not suffered it only Consider him that endured such contradiction endured it so willingly so patiently so chearfully Thirdly from whom he suffered it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 From sinners Sinners in their nature sinful men Sinners in the Jews esteem Heathen men Sinners in the inward constitution of their own hearts Hypocrites and Malignants Sinners in their outward carriage toward him and their undue and illegal proceedings against him no just cause no just proofs but clamours and outcries raiâ—ing and spitting and buffeting and insulting and all manner of contumelious and despiseful usage Fourthly what he suffered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such opposition and contradiction of sinners against himself Contradictions manifold of all sorts and in all respects To his person denied to be the Son of God To his Office not received as the promised Messias To his Doctrine given out as a deceiver To his Miracles disgraced as if he had been a Conjuror and dealt with the Devil To his Conversation defamed as a glutton and a wine-bibber a prophane fellow and a Sabbath-breaker a companion of Publicans and Sinners To his very life and being Not him but Barabbas Away with him Crucifie him Crucifie him 48. These are the heads Many they are you see and of worthier consideration than to be crouded into the latter end of a Sermon Therefore I must of necessity forbear the enlargement of them at this present leaving that for every man to do in his private meditations For a conclusion then let us all I beseech you first consider actually and throughly consider him that endured such contradictions of sinners against himself and having so done applyingly consider whether it can be reasonable or almost possible for any of us to faint under our petty sufferings What are we the best of us the greatest of us to him Or what our sufferings the worst of them the greatest of them to his I have done AD AULAM. Sermon XVII Newport in the Isle of Wight Octob. 1648. Gal. 5. 22 23. But the Fruit of the Spirit is Love Ioy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Faith Meekness Temperance against such there is no Law 1. HE that shall impartially look upon former and the present times shall find that of Solomon exactly true There is no new thing under the Sun Vetus fabula novi histriones The things we see done are but the same things that have been done only acted over again by new Persons and with a few new circumstances It was in the Apostles times and the Churches of Galatia even as it is with us in these days False Teachers had crept in among them who by their hypocrisie and pretensions of the Spirit had so corrupted their Faith that they were removed after a fort unto another Gospel and so extremely sowred their Charity that from provoking and envying they were now grown to biting and devouring one another 2. The Apostle wondring at this so unexpected a change I marvel you are so soon removed Gal. 1. 6. to see them so befooled in their understandings and bewitched in their affections as to suffer so sore and sudden a decay in the two most essential parts of Christian Religion Faith and Charity thought it high time for him after he had first well schooled them O foolish Galatians who hath bewitched you to offer his advice towards the allaying of those heats and distempers that were the causes of this so sad and dangerous an alteration 3. The remedy he prescribeth for that end vers 16. is short but very sure if they will but follow it Walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh As if he had said You talk much of the Spirit but you make it little appear in the fruit of your lives that you are led by the spirit The Spirit and the Flesh are contraries and they lust contrary things vers 17. If you were as careful to walk in the Spirit as you are to boast of it you would not be so forward as now you are by cherishing unbrotherly contentions and sundry other ways to fulfil the lusts of the flesh 4. A hard thing it is to bring an overweening Hypocrite to a true understanding of himself for Pride and Hypocrisie are two such things as few men are willing to own That they might therefore with better certainty be able to discern whether they were indeed Spiritual or but yet Carnal the Apostle proceedeth to describe the Flesh and the Spirit by sundry their different effects A Catalogue we have for that purpose of the works of the Flesh in seventeen particulars in the three next verses before the Text and then another Catalogue of the Fruits of the spirit in nine particulars in the Text it self Wherein we may observe three things First the Notion or general description of Spiritual Graces as they are here proposed they go under this name The fruit of the spirit Secondly the particular Species given under that Name or Notion they are these nine Love Ioy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Faith Meekness and Temperance Thirdly a special priviledge belonging to all and every the aforesaid particulars to wit Exemption from the Law Against such there is no Law 5. In the general description which is like to be our only business at this time the thing we are to take notice of is the differences that may be observed between the Titles under which St. Paul hath entred the several particulars of