punienter Not innovations secondly It is that which Job findes out as one of the hainousest sins of his time Some remove the Land-marks a thing which God hath given strict charge against Deut. 19.4 and we from Moses fetcht it into our Lenten Curses Cursed be he that removeth his neighbours Land-marks Deut. 27.17 even in this case 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a sure rule The old way saith the Prophet is the good way every novelty carries suspicion in the face of it It was a good question of the Church in the Canticles why should I be as one that turneth aside to the Flocks of the companions The wisdom of great States-men have still taken it for a just principle that of Plato 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ye have heard of Land-marks but ye see how it is with Sea-marks if they should be changed it is the wrack of every vessell either Rocks would dash them or shelves swallow them And as innovations do not well in way of change so not in way of addition that which Tertullian said of faces I may say of main truths A diabolo sunt additamenta and if Terpander do but add but one string more to his harp the instrument is broke and he censured In regard of both if it be the great and glorious stile of God that in him is no shadow by changing surely those well setled Churches and States come nearest to his perfection that alter least And if with Lipsius we shall say Quid si in melius I must answer that in every change there is a kind of hazard it is a wise word therefore of our Hooker that a tolerable sore is better then a dangerous Remedy The second Remedy must be a discreet moderation in the pursuance of our apprehended right How many good matters have been marr'd with ill handling The debter did owe to the rigorous steward an hundred pence no doubt the dept was due he might justly claim it but to lay hands on the man and to offer to pluck it out of his debters throat this is justly taxed for a foul cruelty Many an honest Corinthian was injured by his wrangling neighbour and had justissimam causam litigandi yet for Christians to go to law before infidels this the Apostle taxes for a sinfull peece of Justice why rather suffer ye not wrong saith the Apostle This is durus serms saies some brangling parishioner that fetches up his poor Minister every Term for trifles yet in St. Paules judgment a sleight injury is better them a scandalous quarrell The third is a meek complying with each other relenting so far as we may with all possible safety on either part if the difference be between unequalls charitable and mercifull on the superiours part humble and submiss on the inferiours Abraham and Lot fall upon a difference Abraham is the better man he is the Uncle Lot but the Nephew yet Abraham seeks the peace and follows it with him whom one would think he might have commanded Good David had done his Master and Father in Law no wrong unless it were tu pugnas ego vapulo and yet after good demonstration of his loyalty how humbly doth he beg a reconcilement at the hands of Saul Wherefore doth my Lord the King pursue after his servant Now therefore let my Lord the King hear the words of his Servant If the Lord have stirred thee up against me Let him accept an offering Harsh contestations never did good The ball rebounds from the floor to the face of him that throwes it whereas a look of wooll falls without noise and lies still Those that would take birds imitate their language do not scare them with shouting Bitter oppositions may set off but cannot win either an hollow friend or a known Enemy The fourth and last must be a charitable construction of each others acts and intentions There is nothing in the World which may not be taken with either hand whether the right hand of favour or the left of malice We see the Son of God himself in whom the Prince of this World could find nothing yet was exposed to mis-construction Doth he dispossesse Divels it is by Magick by Beelzebub the Prince of Divels Doth he frame himself other then his fore-runner to a sweetly-sociable conversation with men for their conversion Behold a glutton a wine bibber a friend of Publicans and sinners Mat. 11.19 Doth his chosen vessel St. Paul desire to comply with the Jews in purifying himself with the Votaries in the Temple Act. 21.28 he is cryed out on for an enemy to the law for a profaner of the holy place away with him he is not worthy to live Good Lord what uncharitable censure are men apt to passe upon each other let a man be strict and austere in moral and divine duties though never so peaceable he is a Puritan and every Puritan is an Hyppocrite Let him be more free and give more scope to his conversation though never so conscionable he is a Libertine let him make scruple but of any innovated forme he is a Schismatick let him stand for the antiently received rites and government he is a time-serving Formalist This is a Diotrephes that an Aerius this a scorner that a flatterrer In the mean time who can escape free Surely I that taxe both shall be sure to be censured of both shall be yes am to purpose and therein I joy yea and will joy What a neuter saies one what on both sides sayes another This is that I look't for yes truly brethren ye have hit it right I am and professe to be as the termes stand on neither and yet of both parts I am for the peace of both for the humour of neither how should the morter or cement joyn the stones together if it did not lie between both And I would to God not you only that hear me this day but all our brethren of this Land were alike-minded we should not have such libellous presses such unquiet pulpits such distracted bosomes for the truth is there is no reason we should be thus disjâ—ined or thus mutually branded This man is right ye say that man is not right this sound that rotten And how so dear Christians What for ceremonies and circumstances for rochets or rounds or squares let me tell you he is right that hath a right heart to his God what formes soever he is for The Kingdome of God doth not stand in Meats and Drinks in Stuffes or Colours or fashions in Noyses or Gestures it stands in Holinesse and Righteousnesse in Godlinesse and Charity in Peace and Obedience and if we have happily attained unto these God doth not stand upon nifles and niceties of indifferencies and why should we Away then with all false jelousies and uncharitable glosses of each others actions and estates Let us all in the fear of God be intreated in the bowels of our dear Redeemer as we our Selves our Land our Church the Gospell to combine our counsells
excellent the Person so much more hainous is the offence done to him As to offend an Officer is in the eye of the Law more then to offend a private Subject a Magistrate more then an inferiour Officer a Peere more then a Magistrate for that is Scandalum Magnatum a Prince more then a Peere a Monarch more then a Prince Now in very nature a Spirit is more excellent then a Body I could send you higher but if we do but look into our own breasts we shall finde the difference There is a Spirit in Man saith Elihu Job 32.8 The Spirit of Man is as the Candle of the Lord saith Wise Solomon Prov. 20.27 without which the whole House is all dark and confused Now what comparison is there betwixt the Soul which is a Spirit and the Body which is Flesh even this which Wise Solomon instanceth in may serve for all The Spirit of a Man sustains his infirmities but a wounded Spirit who can hear Lo the Body helps to breed infirmities and the Spirit bears them out to which add the Body without the Spirit is dead the Spirit without the Body lives more It is a sad word of David when he complaines My bones are vexed Ps 6.2 and cleaves to my skin Psal 102.5 yet all this is tolerable in respect of that My Spirit faileth me My Spirit is overwhelmed within me my heart within me is desolate Psal 143.4 they were sore strokes that fetcht blood of our blessed Saviour but they were nothing to these inward torments that wrung from him the bloody sweat in his Agony when he said my soul is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 heavy unto the Death could we conceive that the Body could be capable of pain without the Spirit as indeed it is not since the Body feeles only by the Spirit that pain were painlesse but this we are sure of that the Spirit feels more exquisite pain without the Body in the state of separation from it then it could feel in the former conjunction with it and the wrong that is done to the Soul is more haynous then that which can be inflicted on the Body By how much then more pure simple perfect excellent the Spirit is whom we offend by so much more grievous is the offence to offend the Spirit of any good Man one of Christs little ones is so hainous that it were better for a man to have a milstone hanged about his neck and to be cast into the bottom of the Sea Mat. 18.6 To offend an Angel which is an higher degree of spirituality is more then to vex the Spirit of the best man Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy Flesh to sin neither say before the Angel that it was an errour Eccles 5.6 Hence St. Paul heightens his adjuration to Timothy I charge thee before the Elect Angels 1 Tim. 5.21 And giving order for the decent demeanure of the Corinthian Women in the Congregation requires That they should have power on their head because of the Angels 1 Cor. 11.10 To offend therefore the God of Spirits the Father of these spirituall Lights must needs be an infinite aggravation of the sin even so much more as He is above those his best Creatures and there cannot be so much distance betwixt the poorest worme that crawles on the Earth and the most glorious Archangel of Heaven as there is betwixt him and his Creator One would think now there could be no step higher then this yet there is our Saviour hath so taught us to distinguish of sins that he tells us All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven Matth. 12.31 and Marc. 3.29 Not that we can sin against one Person and not offend another for their essence is but one but this sin is singled out for a special obstruction of forgivenesse for that it is done against the illumination and Influence of that Grace whereof the Holy Ghost is the immediate giver and worker in the Soul who is therfore called the Spirit of Grace hereupon is Stevens challenge to the stiff-necked Jews Act. 7.51 Ye do alwayes resist the holy Ghost And his charge to Ananias Why hath Satan filled thy heart to lie to the Holy Ghost Act. 5.3 Ye see then how this charge riseth and what force is put into it by the condition of the Person A Spirit the holy Spirit the holy Spirit of God enough to make way for the consideration of the Act inhibited Grieve not the holy Spirit of God Grieve not c. How incompatible are the termes of this charge That which makes the sin as it is set forth more sinfull may seem to make it impossible If a Spirit how is it capable of passion and if it be impassible how can it be grieved Alas we weak mortalls are subject to be hurried about with every blast of passion The Almighty is above all the reach of these unquiet perturbations Lo that God which mercifully condescended because his infinite glory transcends our weaknesse to speak unto us men by man and by Angels in the forme of Men speaks to us men in the style and language of Men Two wayes then may the Spirit of God be said to be grieved in Himself in his Saints in himself by an Anthropopathie as we call it In his Saints by a Sympathie the former is by way of Allusion to humane passion and carriage so doth the Spirit of God upon occasion of mens sins as we do when we are grieved with some great wrong or unkindnesse And what do we then First we conceive an high dislike of and displeasure at the Act Secondly we withdraw our countenance and favour from the offender Thirdly we inflict some punishment upon the offence and these are all of them dreadfull expressions of the grieving of Gods Spirit even these three displeasure aversion punishment For the first Esay expresseth it by vexation Esay 63.10 A place so much more worthy of observation for that some judicious interpreters as Reverend Calvin Zanchius Pagnine and Cornelius a Lapide think very probably that this text is borrowed from thence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And they rebelled and vexed the Spirit of his holinesse Where such an Act is intimated as compriseth both grief and Anger surely we do not think it safe to irritate the great and if it be but a man a little bigger then our selves we are ready to deprecate his displeasure but if it be a man that is both great and dear to us with whom we are faln out how unquiet are we if we have any good nature in us till we have recovered his lost favour do ye not see with what importunity good David seeks to appease the wrath of his incensed Father in Law none of the best men and causelesly provoked Let my Lord the King hear the words of his Servant If the Lord have stirred thee up against me let him accept an offering but if they
generall national provinciall were either offered or required to be confirmed by Parliaments Emperours and Princes by whose authority those Synods were called have still given their power to the ratification and execution of them and none others and if you please to look into the times within the ken of memory or somewhat beyond it Linwoods Constitutions what Parliaments confirmed The Injunctions of Queen Elizabeth the Canons of King James were never tendred to the Parliament for confirmation and yet have so far obtained hitherto that the government of the Church was by them still regulated compare I beseech you those of K. James with the present your Lordships shall find them many peremptory resolute standing upon their own grounds in points much harder of digestion then these which are but few and only seconds to former constitutions if therefore in this we have erred surely the whole Christian Church of all places and times hath erred with us either therefore we shall have too good company in the censure or else we shall be excused Fourthly give me leave to urge the authority of these Canons in which regard if I might without offence speak it I might say that the complainants have not under correction laid a right ground of their accusation They say we have made Canons and Constitutions alas my Lords we have made none We neither did nor could make Canons more then they can make laws The Canons are so to the Church as laws are for the Common-wealth now they do but rogare legem they do not ferre or sancire legem that is only for the King to do it is le Roy le Veult that of bills makes laws so was it for us to do in matter of Canons we might propound some such constitutions as we should think might be usefull but when we have done we send them to his Majesty who perusing them cum avisamento Consilii sui and approving them puts life into them and of dead propositions makes them Canons as therefore the laws are the Kings laws and not ours so are the Canons the Kings Canons and not the Clergies Think thus of them and then draw what conclusions you please As for that pecuniary business of our contribution wherein we are said to have trenched upon the liberty of subjects and propriety of goods I beseech your Lordships do but see the difference of times we had a precedent for it The same thing was done in Qu. Elizabeths time in a mulct of 3 s. the pound and that after the end of the Parliament with the same clauses of Suspension Sequestration Deprivation without noise of any exception which now is cryed down for an unheard of incroachment how legall it may be I dispute not and did then make bold to move but let the guide of that example and the zeal that we had to the supply of his Majesties necessities excuse us a tanto at least if having given these as subsidies sitting the Parliament and the bill being drawn up for the confirmation of the Parliament we now upon the unhappy dissolution of it as loath to retract so necessary a graunt we were willing to have it continued to his Majesties use But my Lords if I may have leave to speak my own thoughts I shall freely say that whereas there are three general concernments both of persons and causes merely Ecclesiastical merely Temporal or mixt of both Ecclesiastical and temporall as it is fit the Church by her Synode should take cognizance of and order for the first whcih is merely Ecclesiastical so next under his Majesty the Parliament should have the power of ordering the other but in the mean time my Lords where are we The Canons of the Church both late and former are pronounced to be void and forceless the Church is a garden or vineyard inclosed the laws and constitutions of it are as the wall or hedg if these be cast open in what State are we shall the enemies of this Church have such an advantage of us as to say we are a lawless Church or shall all Men be left loose to their licentious freedom God in Heaven forbid Hitherto we have been quietly and happily governed by those former Canons the extent whereof we have not I hope and for some of us I am confident we have not exceeded why should we not be so still Let these late Canons sleep since you will have it so till we awake them which shall not be till Dooms-day and let us be where we were and regulate our selves by those constitutions which were quietly submitted to on all hands and for this which is past since that which we did was out of our true obedience and with honest and godly intentions and according to the Universal practise of all Christian Churches and with the full power of his Majesties authority let it not be imputed to us as any way worthy of your Lordships censure A SPEECH in PARLIAMENT Concerning the power of BISHOPS IN SECULAR THINGS MY Lords this is the strangest bill that ever I heard since I was admitted to sit under this roof for it strikes at the very fabrick and composition of this house at the style of all lawes and therefore were it not that it comes from such a recommendation it would not I suppose undergo any long consideration but coming to us from such hands It cannot but be worthy of your best thoughts and truly for the main scope of the bill I shall yield it most willingly that Ecclesiastical and sacred persons should not ordinarily be taken up with secular affairs The Minister is called Vir Dei a Man of God he may not be Vir Seculi he may lend himself to them upon occasion he may not give himself over purposely to them Shortly he may not so attend worldly things as that he do neglect divine things This we gladly yield matters of justice therefore are not proper as in an ordinary trade for our function and by my consent shall be as in generally waved and deserted which for my part I never have medled with but in a charitable way with no profit but some charge to my self whereof I shall be glad to be eased Tractent fabrilia fabri as the old word is But if any man shall hence think to infer that some spiritual person may not occasionally be in a special service of his King or Countrey when he is so required by his Prince give his advice in the urgent affairs of the Kingdome which I suppose is the main point driven at is such an inconsequence as I dare boldly say cannot be made good either by divinity or reason by the lawes either of God or man whereas the contrary may be proved and inforced by both As for the grounds of this bill that the Ministers duty is so great that it is able to take up the whole man and the Apostle saith 't is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who is sufficient for these things and that he who
free man neither hath any man free-will to good but he Be ambitious of this happy condition O all ye noble and generous spirits and do not think ye live till ye have attained to this true liberty The liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free So from the liberty we descend to the perogative Christs liberation Here is the glorious prerogative of the Son of God to be the deliverer or redeemer of his people They could not free themselves the Angels of heaven might pitty could not redeem them yea alas who could or who did redeem those of their rank which of lightsome celestiall spirits are become foul Devils Only Christ could free us whose ransome was infinite only Christ did free us whose love is infinite and how hath he wrought our liberty By force by purchase By force in that he hath conquer'd him whose captives we were by purchase in that he hath pay'd the full price of our ransom to that supream hand whereto we were forfeited I have heard Lawers say there are in civill Corporations three wayes of freedom by Birth by Service by Redemption By Birth as St. Paul was free of Rome by Service as Apprentises upon expiration of their years by Redemption as the the Centurion with a great sum purchased I this freedom Two of these are barred from all utter possibility in our spiritual freedom for by Birth we are the sons of wrath by service we are naturally the vassals of Satan It is only the precious redemption of the Son of God that hath freed us Whereas freedom then hath respect to bondage there are seven Egyptian Masters from whose slavery Christ hath freed us Sin an accusing Conscience danger of Gods wrath tyranny of Satan the curse of the Law Mosaicall Ceremenies humane Ordinances see our servitude to and our freedom from all these by the powerfull liberation of Christ 1. It was a true word of that Pythagorean Quot vitia tot domini sin is an hard master A master Yea a tyrant let not sin reign in your mortall bodies Rom. 6 14. and so the sinner is not only servus corruptitiae a drudge of corruptions 2 Pet. 2.19 but a very slave sold under sin Rom. 7.14 So necessitated to evill by his own inward corruption that he cannot but grind in this Mill he cannot but row in this Gally For as posse peccare is the condition of the greatest Saint upon earth and Non posse peccare is the condition of the least Saint above so non posse non peccare is the condition of the least sinful unregenerate as the prisoner may shift his feet but not his fetters or as the snail cannot but leave a slime track behind it which way soever it goes Here is our bondage where is our liberty Ubi spriritus domini ibi libertas where the spirit of the Lord is there is liberty 2 Cor. 3.7 Oh wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death I thank my God through Jesus Christ So then Christ hath freed us from the bondage of sin An accusing conscience is a true task-master of Egypt it will be sure to whip us for what we have done for what we have not done Horrour of sin like a sleeping Mastive lyes at our door Gen. 4.7 when it awakes it will fly on our throat No closer doth the shaddow follow the body then the revenge of self-accusation followes sin walk Eastward in the morning the shadow starts behind thee soon after it is upon thy left side at noon it is under thy feet lye down it coucheth under thee towards even it leaps before thee thou canst not be rid of it whiles thou hast a body and the Sun light no more can thy soul quit the conscience of evil This is to thee instead of an Hell of Fiends that shall ever be shaking fire brands at thee ever torturing thee with affrights of more paines then thy nature can comprehend Soeva conturbata conscientia Wisd 17.11 If thou look to the punishment of loss it shall say as Lysimachus did how much felicity have I lost for how little pleasure If to the punishment of sense it shall say to thee as the Tyrant dream'd his heart said to him out of the boiling caldron 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am the cause of all this misery Here is our bondage where is the liberty Having our hearts sprinkled from an evill Conscience Heb. 10.22 Sprinkled with what Even with the blood of Jesus vers 19. This this only is it that can free us It is with the unquiet heart as with the troubled Sea of Tiberias the Winds rise the Waters swell the billowes roar the ship is tossed Heaven and Earth threat to meet Christ doth but speak the word all is calme so Christ hath freed us Secondly from the bondage of an accusing conscience The conscience is but Gods Bayliff It is the displeasure of the Lord of Heaven and Earth that is the utmost of all terribles the fear of Gods wrath is that strong winde that stirrs these billowes from the bottom set aside the danger of divine displeasure and the clamoâ—rs of conscience were harmless this alone makes an Hell in the bosome The aversion of Gods face is confusion the least bending of his brow is perdition Ps 2. ult but his totus aestus his whole fury as Ps 78.38 is the utter absorption of the creature excandescentia ejus funditur sicut ignis His wrath is poured out like fire the rocks are rent before it Nahum 1.6 whence there is nothing but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a fearfull expectation of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries Heb. 10.27 Here is the bondage where is the liberty Being just fyed by faith we have peace with God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then Christ hath freed us thridly from the bondage of the wrath of God As every wicked man is a Tyrant according to the Philosophers position and every Tirant is a Devil among men so the Devil is the Arch-tyrant of the creatures he makes all his Subjects errand vassals yea chained slaves 2 Tim. 2. ult That they may recover themselves from the snare of the Devil who are taken captive by him at his will lo here is will snares captivity perfect tyranny Nahash the Ammonite was a notable Tyrant he would have the right eyes of the Israelites put out as an eminent mark of servitude so doth this infernal Nahash blind the right eye of our understanding yea with the spightful Philistim he puts out both the eyes of our apprehension and judgment that he may gyre us about in the Mill of unprofitable wickednesse and cruelly insult upon our remedilesse misery And when he hath done the fairest end is death yea death without end Oh the impotency of earthly tyranny to this the greatest blood-suckers could but kill and livor post fata as the old word is but here is an homicida ab initio and a fine
too ever killing with an ever-living death for a perpetual fruition of our torment Here is the bondage where is the liberty Christ hath spoiled principalities and powers and made a show of them openly triumphing over them in the same cross Colos 2.15 By his death he destroyed him that hath the power of death tke Devil Heb. 2.14 So then Christ hath freed us fourthly from the bondage of Satans tyranny At the best the law is but a hard Master impossible to please 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith St. Paul but at the worst a cruell one The very courtesie of the law was jugum an unsupportable yoke but the spight of the law is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a curse Cursed is every one that continues not in all that is written in the book of the law to do it Gal. 3.10 Do you not remember an unmercifull steward in the Gospell that catcheth his bankrupt fellow by the throat and saies Pay me that thou owest me so doth the law to us we should pay and cannot and because we cannot pay we forfeit our selves so as every mothers son is the child of death Here is our bondage where is our liberty Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us Oh blessed redemption that frees us from the curse Oh blessed redeemer that would become a curse for us that the curse of the law might not light upon us so Christ hath freed us fifthly from the bondage of the law Moses was a meek man but a severe Master His face did not more shine in Gods aspect upon him then it lowred in his aspect to men His ceremonies were hard impositions Many for number costly for charge painfull for execution He that led Israel out of one bondage carryed them into another From the bondage of Egypt to the bondage of Sinai this held till the vail of the Temple rent yea till the vail of that better Temple his sacred body his very heart-strings did crack a sunder with a consummatum est And now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christ is the end of the law Rom. 10.4 Now the law of the spirit of life hath freed us Rom. 8.2 You hear now no more newes of the ceremonies of prefiguration they are dead with Christ ceremonies of decency may and must live let no man now have his ear bored thorough to Moses his post Christ hath freed us sixtly from the law of ceremonies Our last Master is humane Ordinances the case of our exemption where from is not so clear concerning which I finde a double extream of opinion The one that ascribes too much to them as equalling them with the law of God the other that ascribes too little to them as if they were no tie to our obedience The one holding them to bind the conscience no less then the positive laws of God the other either sleighting their obligation or extending it only to the outward man not the inward we must learn to walk a mid-way betwixt both and know that the good lawes of our superiours whether civill or ecclesiastical do in a sort reach to the very conscience though not primarily and immediately as theirs yet mediately and secondarily as they stand in reference to the law of God with our obedience to his instituted authority and therefore they tie us in some sort besides the case whether of scandall or contempt Where no man can witness there is no scandall where is no intention of an affront to the commanding power there is no contempt and yet willingly to break good Iaws without all witness without all purpose of affront is therfore sin because disobedience For example I dine fully alone out of wantonnesse upon a day sequestred by authority to a publick fast I dine alone therefore without scandall out of wantonnesse therefore not out of contempt yet I offend against him that seeth in secret notwithstanding my solitarinesse and my wantonnesse is by him construed as a contempt to the ordainer of authority But when both scandall and contempt are met to aggravate the violation now the breach of humane lawes binds the conscience to a fearfull guilt Not to flatter the times as I hope I shall never be blurred with this crimination I must needs say this is too shamefully unregarded Never age was more lawlesse Our fore-fathers were taught to be superstitiously scrupulous in observing the lawes of the Church above Gods like those Christians of whom Socrates the historian speaks of which held fornication as a thing indifferent de diebus festis tanquam de vita decertant but strive for an holy day as for their life we are leapt into a licentious neglect of civill or sacred lawes as if it were piety to be disobedient Doth the law command a Friday fast no day is so selected for feasting let a schismaticall or popish book be prohibited this very prohibition endears it let wholsome lawes be enacted against drunkennesse idlenesse exactions unlawfull transportations excesse of diet of apparell or what ever noted abuse commands do not so much whet our desires as forbiddances what is this but to baffle and affront that sacred power which is entrusted to government and to professe our selves not Libertines but licentiate of disorder Farr farr is it from the intentions of the God of order under the stile of liberty to give scope to these unruly humors of men the issue whereof can be no other then utter confusion But if any power besides divine in Heaven or Earth shall challenge to it self this priviledg to put a primary or immediate tie upon the conscience so as it should be a sin to disobey that ordinance because 't is without relation to the command of the highest let it be anathema our hearts have reason to be free in spight of any such Antichristian usurpation whiles the owner of them hath charged us not to be thus the servants of men 1 Cor. 7.23 so Christ hath lastly freed us from the bondage of humane ordinances Lo now ye have seen our liberation from a whole heptarchy of spirituall tyranny Stand still now awhile Honourable and beloved and look back with wondring and thankfull eyes upon the infinite mercy of our deliverer sin beguiles us conscience accuseth us Gods wrath is bent against us Satan tyrannizes over us the law condemnes us insolent superstition inthralls us and now from all these Christ hath made us free How should we now erect altars to our dear Redeemer and inscribe them Christo liberatori how should we from the altars of our devoted hearts send up the holy sacrifices of our best obediences the sweet incense of our perpetuall prayers Oh blessed Saviour how should we how can we enough magnifie thee no not though those celestiall Choristers of thine should return to bear a part with us in renewing their gloria in excelsis glory to God on high Our bodies our souls are too little for thee Oh take thine own from us and give it
presence followes upon the other or accompanies it For when we do carefully and conscionably wait upon Gods ordinance then his Spirit offers and conveighs it self into the heart these are Vehiculum gratiae the carriage of grace into the soul Never any scorner or profane person hath any sense of this presence This is that David speaks so passionately of Oh cast me not away from thy presence and take not thine holy spirit from me It troubled him as before to be kept from Gods ordinances but it troubled him an hundred times more to be cast out from this more entire presence Cant. 5.6.7 the Church in the Canticles when she misses her welbeloved how impatient she is How she runs about the City How she hazards her self to the blowes of the watchmen and will take no rest till she have recovered him These spirituall desertions are the saddest things that can befall to a man For there is a spirituall familiarity of sweet conversation betwixt God and his which it is a death to forgoe they injoy each other live in each others sight impart their counsels each to other So then we draw near to God when repenting us of our former aberrations from him we renue our covenants with him put our selves into an awfull acknowledgment of him still seeing him that is invisible when we grow into dear though trembling acquaintance with him taking pleasure in his company interchanging our dulce susurrium cum Deo as Bernard speaks and indevouring to be in all things approved of him This must needs be a very comfortable and blessed condicion Oh happy thrice happy are they that ever they were born who have truly attained to it It is a true rule in philosophy that every naturall agent works by a contaction whether bodily or virtuall which the weaker or further off it is the efficacy of the operation is so much the lesse As when we are cold the fire heates us but not except we come within the reach of it If we stand aloof off it warmes us so feebly that we are little the better for it but if we draw close to the hearth now it sensibly refresheth us even thus also doth God himself please to impart himself to us How ever there is infinite vertue in the Almighty not confinable to any limits Luc. 8.45 yet he will not put it forth to our benefit unlesse we thus draw near to him who toucht me saith our Saviour when the bloody-fluxed woman fingred but the hemme of his garment Lo many thronged him but there was but one that toucht him and upon that touch Vertue went out from him to her cure He might have diffused his vertue as the Sun doth his beames at a distance to the furthest man but as good old Isaac that could have blessed his Esau in the field or in the forrest yet would have him to come close to him for his benediction So will God have us to draw nigh to him if ever we look for any blessing at his hands according to the charge here given Draw nigh unto God Now then that from the respect to the presence of God we may descend to consider the motion of man There are many wayes of our appropinquation to God this People saith God drawes nigh me with their lips but their hearts are farr from me This is an approach that God cannot abide this lip-walk may advance us to hell for our hypocrisie but it can never promove us one step towards Heaven God cannot abide meer talkers of religion let them say Lord Lord he shall answer them I know you not Depart from me ye workers of iniquity There are three wayes of our drawing nigh to God which he accepts of from us On our feet on our hands and on our knees On our feet first Keep thy foot Eccles. 5.1 saith Solomon when thou goest into the house of God what are the feet of the soul but the affections Then do we therefore draw nigh to God when we are so affected to him as we ought when we come to him with the foot of fear Fear the Lord all his Saints saith the Psalmist Serve the Lord in fear Ps 2. Fear God and depart from evill saith his Son Solomon Prov. 3.7 when we come to him with the foot of love I sought him whom my soul loveth saith the Spouse Cant. 3.1 when with the foot of desire As the embossed heart panteth for the rivers of waters so doth my soul for thee O God Ps 42.1 with the foot of joy I rejoyced when they said Come let us go up to the house of the Lord with the foot of confidence In the Lord put I my trust how then do ye say to my soul Flee hence as a bird to the hills And as we must draw nigh to God on the feet of our affections so also upon the hands of our actions even as Jonathan and his armour-bearer climbed up the rock with feet and hands this is done when we perform to God all holy obedience when we serve him as we ought both in our devotions and our carriage and this is the best and truest approximation to God Walk before me saith God to Abraham and be upright Master saith Peter if it be thou Joh. 21.17 bid me come unto thee and after that when he heard it was the Lord he girt his fishers coat to him casts himself into the Sea to come to Christ without this reality of action all our profession is but idle pretence I remember our Country-man Bromiard tells us of one who meeting his neighbour coming out of the Church askt him what is the Sermon done Done said the other No It is said it is ended but it is not so soon done And surely so it is with us we have good store of Sermons said but we have but a few done and one sermon done is worth a thousand said and heard For not the hearers of the law but the doers of it are justified and if ye know these things blessed are ye if ye do them Glory honour and peace to every one that worketh good Rom. 2.10 Now that we may supply both those other approaches on our feet hands we must in the third place draw nigh to God on our knees in our earnest supplications to him for his enabling us to them both doth any man want wisdom and this is the best improvement of wisdom that may be Ja. 1.4 to shelter our selves under the wings of the Almighty let him ask of God who giveth liberally and upbraideth no man let us sue to him with all holy importunity Oh that my wayes were made so direct that I might keep thy statutes Teach me O Lord the way of thy statutes Ps 119. and I shall keep it to the end O stablish thy word in thy servant that I may fear thee Thus let us seek the Lord early and fervently and powre out our hearts before him It is not for us to
into what right we have to this holy spirit and to that son-ship of God which in our Baptism we profess to partake of we are all apt upon the least cause to be proud of our parentage There are Nations they say in the world whereof every man challenges gentility and kindred to their King so are we wont to do spiritually to the King of Heaven Every one hath the Spirit of God every one is the son of God It is the main errand we have to do on the Earth to settle our hearts upon just grounds in the truth of this resolution and this text undertakes to do it for us infallibly deciding it that those and none but those that are led by the Spirit of God are the Sons of God So as we need not now think of climbing up into Heaven to turn the books of Gods eternall Counsell nor linger after Enthusiasmes and Revelations as some fanaticall spirits use to do nor wish for that holy Dove to wisper in our ear with that great Arabian impostour but only look seriously into our own hearts and lives and trie our selves thoroughly by this sure and unfailing rule of our blessed Apostle So many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the Sons of God let my speech and your attention then be bounded in these three limits Here is First a priviledg To be the Sons of God Secondly a qualification of the priviledged To be led by the Spirit Thirdly an Universall predication of that priviledge upon the persons qualified So many as are led by the Spirit of God are the Sons of God I need not crave your attention the importance of the matter challenges it To the first then it is a wonderfull and inexplicable priviledge this To be the Sons of God no marvell if every one be apt to claim The glory of Children are their Fathers Prov. 17.6 How were the Jewes puffed up with that vain gloriation that they were the Sons of Abraham and yet they might have been so and have come from hated Esau or ejected Ismael what is it then to be the Sons of the God of Abraham Ye know what David could say upon the tender of matching into the blood royall seemeth it a small matter to you to be the Son in Law to a King Oh what then is it to be the true born sons to the great King of Heaven The Abassins pride themselves to be derived from that Son whom they say the Queen of Sheba had begotten of her by Solomon when she went to visit him it is enough that it was Princely though base how may we glory to be the true and legitimate issue of the King of glory the great Lord in the Gospell is brought in by our Saviour in his parable to say They will reverence my Son and Amnons wicked kinsman could say to him Why art thou the Kings Son so sad as if the son-ship to a King were a supersedeas to all whatsoever griefe or discontentment Neither is there matter of honour onely in this priveledg but of profit too especially in the case of the Sons of this Heavenly King whose Sons are all heirs as ye have it v. 17. with men indeed it is not so Amongst Gods chosen people the first born carryed away a double portion but in some other Nations and in some parts of ours the Eldest goes away with all as on the contrary others are ruled by the law or custome of Gavell kind and the like institutions where either the youngest inherit or all equally but generally it is here with us contrary to that old word concerning Isaacs twins the lesser serves the greater Johosaphat gave great gifts to his other sons but the Kingdome to the Eldest Jehoram 1 Chron. 21.3 so as the rest were but as subjects to their Eldest Brother in the family of the highest it is not so there are all heires all inherit the blessings the honours as all are partakers of the Divine nature and of every one may be said by way of Regeneration that which was eminently and singularly said by the way of eternall generation of the naturall and coessentiall Son of God Thou art my Son I have begotten thee so all are partakers of those blessings and happy immunities which appertain to their filiation and what are they Surely great beyond the power of expression for first in this name they have a spiritual right to all the creatures of God all things are yours saith the Apostle A spirituall I say not a naturall not a civill right which men have to what they legally possess we must take heed of this errour which makes an Universall confusion where ever it prevailes all these earthly affaires are managed by a civill right which men have whether by descent or lawfull acquisition so as it is not for any man to challenge an interest either ad rem or in re in the goods of another but Gods children have a double claim to all they possess both civill from men and spirituall from God The Earth hath he given to the Sons of men saith the Psalmist and men by just conquest by purchase by gift conveigh it legally to each other Besides which they have a spirituall right for God hath given all things to his Son as Mediatour and in and by him to those that are incorporated into him so as now in this regard every child of God is mundi dominus the Lord of the World as that Father truly said Secondly they have in this name an interest in God himself for what nearer relation can there be then betwixt a father and a son An interest in all his promises in all his mercies in all that he is in all that flowes from him in his remission protection provision Which of us earthly parents if we extinguish not nature in our selves can be wanting in these things to the children of our Loines How much more impossible is it that he who is All love 1 Job 4.16 should be wanting to those that are his by a true regeneration Hence is that enforcement which God useth by his Prophet Can a woman forget her sucking child that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb yea they may forget yet will not I forget thee Behold I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands Esay 59.15 16. Thirdly hence followes an unquestionable right in attendance and Guardianship of the blessed Angels Psal 91.11 They are the little ones whereof our Saviour Matth. 18. the especial charge whom those glorious Spirits are deputed to attend Hebr. 1.14 And oh what an honor is this that we are guarded by creatures more glorious in nature more excellent in place and office then our selves What a comfortable assureance is this that we have these troopes of Heavenly Souldiers pitching their tents about us and ready to save-guard us from the malice of the principalities and powers of darknesse Lastly in this name they have a certain and unfailable
of evil inclinations and actions which yet will never reach to evince our son-ship to God How easily were it for me to name you divers Heathens which have been eminent in all these and yet for ought we know never the nearer to Heaven yet lower there are some speciall gifts of the Spirit which we call Charismata rare endowments bestowed upon some men excellent faculties of preaching and praying power of miraculous workings as no doubt Judas did cast out Devils as well as the best of his fellow-Apostles gifts of tongues and of Prophesie and the like which do no more argue a right to the son-ship of God then the Manuaries infused skill of Bezaleel and Aâ—oliab could prove them Saints yet lastly there may be sensible operations of the Spirit of God upon the soul in the influences of holy motions into the heart in working a temporary faith and some fair progresse in an holy profession and yet no sonship the world is full of such glow-wormes that make some show of Spiritual Light from God when they have nothing in them but cold crudities that can serve for nothing but deceit Will ye then see what leading of the Spirit can evince us to be the Sons and Daughters of God know then that if we will hope for a comfortable assurance hereof we must be efficaciously led by his sanctifying Spirit first in matter of judgment secondly in our dispositions and thirdly in our practise For matter of judgment ye remember what our Saviour said to his Disciples When the Spirit of truth is come he will lead you into all Truth John 16.13 That is into all saving and necessary truthes so as to free us from grosse ignorance or main errour Whosoever therefore is enlightned with the true and solid knowledg of all those points of Christian doctrine which are requisite for salvation is in that first regard led by the Spirit and in this behalf hath a just title to the son-ship of God as contrarily those that are grosly and obstinately erroneous in their judgment of fundamental truthes let them pretend to never so much holinesse in heart or life shall in vain lay claim to this happy condition of the Sons of God For our disposition secondly If the holy Spirit have wrought our hearts to be right with God in all our affections if we do sincerely love and fear him if we do truely believe in him receiving him as not our Saviour only but as our Lord If our desires be unfained towards him If after a meek and penitent self-dejection we can find our selves raised to a lively hope and firm confidence in that our blessed Redeemer and shall continue in a constant and habitual fruition of him being thus led by the Spirit of God we may be assured that we are the Sons of God for flesh and blood cannot be accessary to these gracious dispositions Lastly for our practise it is a clear word which we hear God say by Ezekiel I will put my Spirit into the midst of you and will by it cause you to walk in my statutes and keep my laws Ezech. 36.27 Lo herein is the main crisis of a soul led by the Spirit of God and adopted to this heavenly son-ship It is not for us to content our selves to talk of the lawes of our God and to make empty and formal professions of his name Here must be a continued walk in Gods statutes it will not serve the turne for us to stumble upon some acceptable work to step aside a little into the pathes of godlinesse and then draw back to the World no my beloved this leading of Gods Spirit must neither be a forced angariation as if God would feoffe grace and salvation upon us against our wills nor some suddain protrusion to good nor a meer actual momentany transient conduction for a brunt of holinesse and away leaving us to the sinful wayes of our former disobedience and to our wonted compliances with the World the Devil and the Flesh but must be in a steady uninterrupted habitual course of holy obedience so as we may sincerely professe with the man after Gods own heart My soul hath kept thy Testimonies and I love them exceedingly Psal 119.67 Now then dear Christians lay this to heart seriously and call your selves sadly to this triall What is the carriage of our lives What obedience do we yeild to the whole law of our God If that be entire hearty universal constant perseverant and truly conscientious we have whereof to rejoyce an unfailing ground to passe a confident judgment upon our spiritual estate to be no lesse then happy But if we be willingly failing in the unfained desires and indevours of these holy performances and shall let loose the reins to any known wickednesse we have no part nor portion in this blessed condition Mark I beseech you how fully this is asserted to our hands in this saith the beloved Apostle the Children of God are manifest and the children of the Devil whosoever doth not righteousnesse is not of God neither he that loves not his brother 1 Joh. 3.10 Observe I pray you what test we are put to ye hear him not say who so talks not holily or who so professes not godlinesse in these an hypocrite may exceed the best Saint but whosoever doth not righteousnesse withall see what a clause the Disciple of love superadds to the mention of all Righteousnesse neither he that loves not his brother surely the Spirit of God is a Loving Spirit Wisdom 1.6 and St. Paul hath the like phrase Rom. 15.30 To let passe then all the other proofes of our guidance by the spirit Instance but in this one Alas my Brethren what is become of that charitable and christian carriage of men towards one another which God requires of us and which was wont to be conspicuous amongst Christian compatriots Wo is me instead of that true and hearty love which our Saviour would have the Livery of our Disciple-ship the badg of our holy profession what do we see but emulation envy malice rigid censures and rancorous heart-burnings amongst men In stead of those neighbourly and friendly offices which Christians were wont lovingly to performe to each other what have we now in the common practise of men but underminings oppressions violence cruelty Can we think that the Spirit of him who would be styled Love it self would lead us in these rugged and bloody pathes No no this alone is too clear a proof how great a stranger the Spirit of God is to the hearts and waies of men and how few there are that upon good and firme grounds can plead their right to the son-ship of God Alas alas if these dispositions and practises may bewray the sons of an holy God what can men do to prove themselves the children of that hellish Apollion who was a man-slayer from the beginning For us my beloved Oh let us hate and bewaile this common degeneration of Christians and as we would
Therefore thus saith the Lord of Hosts the God of Israel Behold I will set my face against you for evill and to cut off all Judah Jer. 44.10.11 and if ye will have particularities have we not cause to fear that he will make good upon us that fearful word I have taken away my peace from this people saith the Lord even loving kindnesse and mercies Jer. 16.5 This is an ablative judgment and that a heavy one too will ye see a positive one more heavy then that Behold I will utterly forget you and I will forsake you and the City that I gave to you and your forefathers and cast you out of my presence And I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you and a perpetual shame which shall not be forgotten Jer. 23.39 40. Will ye have the specialities of his threatned judgments Behold I will send upon them the sword the famine and the pestilence I will persecute them with all these and will deliver them to be removed to all the Kingdomes of the Earth to be a curse and an astonishment and an hissing and a reproach among all Nations Jer. 29.17 18. But enough enough of these dolefull accents of interminated judgments wherewith if I would follow the steps of the Prophets I might strike your hearts with just horrour See now the no lesse danger that arises from our selves no lesse Yea much greater for the highest revenge of all other that God takes of men is when he punishes sin with sin Let me therefore sadly and seriously tell you that there is just fear we are running apace into two woful mischiefs Atheisme and Barbarisme Oh that I were a false Prophet and did not see too much ground of this fear The multiplicity of these wild opinions in matter of Religion if there be not a speedy restraint can have no other issue but no Religion And if we should live to see discouragements put upon Learning and a substract on or diminution of the maintenance of studied Divines and an allowance of or connivence at unlettered preachers and no care taken of any but some select soules ignorance confusion and barbarity will be the next newes that we shall hear of from the Church of England Brethren if we see not these causes of fear we are blind and if seeing them we be not affected with them we are stupid Let this be enough to be spoken of those grounds that make a just time of our mourning now that our seasonable mourning may not be to no purpose let us inquire a little how this our mourning should be regulated for the due carriage and conditions of it And first for the quantity of it it must be proportioned to the occasion and cause upon which it is taken up for to mourne deeply upon sleight and trivial causes were weak and childish like to those faint hearts that are ready to swoun away for the scratch of a finger on the contrary not to mourne heavily upon a main cause of grief argues an insensate and benummed heart If it be for some vehement affliction of body good Ezekiah is a lawfull precedent for us Like as a Crane or a swallow so did I chatter I did mourne as a dove mine eyes fail with looking upward Isaiah 38.14 If it be for some great publick calamity Jeremie tells you what to do For this gird you with sackcloth lament and howl for the fierce anger of the Lord is not turned back from us Jerem. 4.8 and Gods chosen People are a fit pattern The Elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground and keep silence they have cast up dust upon their heads they have girded themselves with sackcloth the Virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground Lament 2.10 and the Prophet beats them company in their sorrow Mine eyes do fail with tears my bowels are troubled my liver is poured upen the earth for the destruction of the daughter of my People Lament 2.11 If it be for some personall and grievous sin that we have been miscarried into Holy David is a meet example for us My bones saith he waxed old through my roaring all the day long for day and night thy hand was heavie upon me my moisture is turned into the drought of Summer Psal 32.3 4. and elsewhere My sore ran in the night and ceased not my soul refused to be comforted I complained and my Spirit was over-whelmed Psal 77.2 3. Where are those pandars of sin the Romish casuists that teach the least measure of sorrow even meer attrition is enough for a penitent Surely had the man after Gods own heart thought so he had spared many a sigh and many a sobbe and many a tear that his sins cost him and so must they do us if ever we hope to recover true comfort to our souls and certainly could we be rightly apprehensive of the dread Majesty of the most high God whom we move to anger with our sin and could consider the hainousness of sin whereby we provoke the eyes of his glory and lastly the dreadfulness of that eternal torment which our sin drawes after it we could not think it easy to spend too much sorrow upon our sins Lastly if from our own private bosome we shall cast our eyes upon the common sins of the times and places wherein we live a tast whereof I have given you in this our present discourse where oh where shall we finde tears enough to bewail them now sack-cloth and ashes sighs and tears weeping and wailing rending of garments yea rending of hearts too are all too little to expresse our just mourning When good Ezra heard but of that one sin wherewith both Priests and Levites and the Rulers and People of Israel were tainted which was their intermarriage with the Heathen so as the holy seed was vitiated with this mixture how passionately was he affected Let himself tell you When I heard this thing saith he I rent my garment and my mantle and pluckt off the hair of my head and of my beard and sat down astonished untill the evening sacrifice Ezra 9.3 4. What would he have done think we if he had seen so many abominations and heard so many and soul blasphemies of his Israel as we have been witnesses of in these last times This for the quantity Now secondly for the quality of our mourning we may not think to rest in a meer sorrow in a pensive kind of sullennesse Worldly sorrow causeth death 2 Cor. 8.10 For by the sorrow of the heart the Spirit is broken Prov. 15.13 and a broken spirit dryeth the bones Prov. 17.22 And this is one main difference betwixt the Christian mourner and the Pagan both equally complain both are sensible of the causes of their complaint but the sorrow of the one is simply and absolutely afflictive as looking no further but to the very object of his grief the other is mixed with divers holy temperaments as with a meekness of Spirit with a faithul
the dayes of the blessed Apostles till this age to stand for it The second hath the late persecuted reformed Church of France which never desired or meant to make their necessitated forme a patterne for others the Netherlands and Scotland for precedents of it The third hath the Ministers of New-England and their Associates commonly styled by the name of INDEPENDENTS vehemently contending for it The adversaries of every of these are as well known as their friends and the pleas which every of them makes for it self are as well known as either I suppose it is yet res integra else I should lay my finger upon my lips Both the Houses of Parliament your Assembly and the whole Kingdome stand yet free and unengaged to any part For the National Covenant as it is interpreted by some of your selves and those other Divines whose allowed Sermons have commented upon it intends not to abjure and disclaime Episcopacie as such but only bends against the whole present fabrick of Government as it is built on these Arches these Pedestals so as if it be taken asunder from those some of them not necessary appendances you are no way forstalled in your judgement against it nor any other that hath lift up his hand in this solemn Covenant That I may not urge the Latine Translation of the same Covenant printed and sent abroad to the Low-Countries and France and other Churches which ran only upon tyrannicum regimen Episcoporum that onely the Tyrannical Government of the prelates not their fatherly and brotherly preeminence is there abjured Your wisdomes know well how to distinguish betwixt a Calling and the abuses of the execution thereof betwixt the main substance of a Calling and the circumstantial and separable appurtenances thereunto from which it may be devested and yet stand intire I should be a flatterer of the times past which is not often seen if I should take upon me to justifie or approve of all the carriages of some that have been entrusted with the keyes of Ecclesiastical Government or to blanch over the Corruptions of Consistorial Officers in both these there was fault enough to ground both a complaint and Reformation and may that man never prosper that desires not an happy Reformation of what ever hath been or is amiss in the Church of God but this I offer to your serious consideration whether Episcopacie stripped of all circumstances that may be justly excepted against and reduced to the Primitive estate may not be thought a forme both better in it self and more fit for this Kingdome and Church then either of the other How ancient it is I need not appeal to any but your selves who do well know that there was never yet any History of the Church wherein there was not full mention made of Bishops as the only Governers thereof neither can any learned adversary deny that they have continued with the general allowance of Gods Church from the very Apostolick times untill this present age And whether it can be safe and lye not open to much scandal to exchange so ancient an institution hitherto perpetuated to the Church for a new where no necessity inforces us judge ye How universal it is being the only received government of all the Christian Churches over the face of the whole earth excepting onely this small spot of our neighbourhood ye know as well as the undoubted relation of the Christianographie can tell you and how unsafe it may be to depart from the forme of all the Churches that professe the name of Christ who do all submit themselves to Bishops or Superintendents except the fore-excepted I leave to your grave judgment Besides how Episcopacie is and hath long been setled in this Kingdome and as it were incorporated into it and enwoven into the municipal Lawes of this Land so as that it cannot be utterly removed without much alteration in the whole body of our Lawes is a matter well worthy of not the least consideration But all these would yet seem light upon the Balance if there were not an intrinsecal worth in the institution it self that might sway with you The covenant bindes to the indeavours of such a Government as is according to the Word of God and the example of the best Reformed Churches And now let me appeal to your own hearts and the hearts of all judicious and unprejudicated Readers whether the rules of Church Government laid forth in the Epistles to Timothy and Titus do not suppose and import that very proper jurisdiction which is claimed by Episcopacy at this Day Which if it were not intended to be left as a perfect patterne to succession the whole Church of Christ should have been left in the dark without any direction for the succeding administration thereof Those charges are plainly given not to many but to one and do most manifestly imply not a party but preeminence and power And if the example of the best Churches must carry it What Church could be more pure and more fit for our imitation then the Primitive And that part of it which immediately followed the Apostles of our blessed Saviour Jesus Christ And do not you full well know that our Histories and unquestionable Authors name the men whom those Apostles by imposition of hands ordained to this function Do not Ignatius Irenaeus Tertullian Polycrates Egesippus Clemens Eusebius Jerome instance in those persons who succeeded each other in those first Sees If you tell me of the difference betwixt the Episcopacie of those first Ages of the Church and that of the present times I doe willingly yield it but withall I must add that it is not in any thing essentiall to the calling but in matters outward and meerly adventitious the abatement whereof if it should be found needful diminisheth nothing from the substance of that holy institution What can be more expresse then in the ancientest of them the Blessed Martyr Ignatius the mention of the three distinct degrees of Bishops Presbyters Deacons encharged with their several duties which were yet never intermitted and let fall to this present day How frequently and vehemently doth he in his genuine Epistles twice in that to the Ephesians call for due subjection to the Bishops and the Presbyterie How distinctly doth he in his Epistle to the Magnesians name their Bishop Dama their Presbyters Bassus Appollonius Stephanus How doth he in his Epistle Ad Trallianos set forth the Bishop 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and and the Presbytery 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. And if any man shall be so unjustly scrupulous as to call into question the credit of this gracious Author reserved no doubt by a special providence for the conviction of the Schismes of these last times therein out-doing Vedeliu◠himself who stoutly asserteth some of these Epistles whiles he rejects others as supposititious let him cast his eyes upon the no less famous and holy Martyr and Bishop Polycarpus Iren. advers Haeres l. 3. c. 3. who as Irenaeus
ex consideratione peccati Theol. Britan. Dordr Artic. 1. de reprob Thes 5. Of Christs Death DEus lapsi generis humani miseratus misit filium suum qui seipsum dedit pretium redemptionis pro peccatis totius mundi Nemo mortalium est qui non possit vere serio per Ministros Evangelii vocari ad participationem remissionis peccatorum vitae aeternae per hanc mortem Christi Theol. Brit. Dordr de 2 Art Thes 3. GOd pitying the woful condition of man fallen by his free will into sin and perdition sent his own Son that he should give him himself as a ransom for the sins of the whole World so as there is no living soul that may not be truly and seriously invited by his faith to take hold of the forgiveness of his sins and everlasting life by the virtue of this death of Christ with certain assurance of obtaining both In hoc merito Christi sundatur universale promissum Evangelicum juxta quod omnes in Christum credentes remissionem peccatorum vitam aeternam re ipsa consequantur Theol. Britan. Dordrac ibid. Thes 4. 2. Upon this infinite merit of Christs death is grounded that universall promise and covenant of the Gospell offering remission and salvation to all Men through the whole World if they be not wanting to the receipt thereof Illud pretium quod solutum est pro omnibus quod omnibus credentibus certo proficiet ad vitam aeternam non proficit tamen omnibus c. Theol. Brit. Dordr de Art 2. Explic. Thes 3. 3. Notwithstanding this infinite merit of Christs death the fruit and benefit thereof doth not accrew to all Men but to those only who do apply the virtue of his death by faith Constat Christum proponendo Evangelium etiam illam gratiam internam administrasse quae hactenus sussiciebat ut ex eo quod non acceptarent vel rejicerent Evangelium juste coargui possint infidelitatis Theol. Britan. ibid. in explicat Thes 5. In Ecclesia ubi salus omnibus offertur ea est administratio gratiae quae sufficit ad convincendos omnes impoenitentes incredulos quod sua culpa voluntaria vel neglectu vel contemptu evangelii perierint ut supra 4. Those within the Church especially that do not reap this benefit by the death of Christ perish manifestly by their own default forasmuch as God hath ordained that wheresoever the gracious promise of the Gospel shall be preached there shall be and is withall ordinarily so much supernaturall grace offered together with the outward means as may justly convince the impenitent and unbelieving of a wilfull neglect if not a contemptuous rejection 5. Besides this generall promise of the Gospel God hath decreed to give a speciall more abundant and effectuall grace unto his elect whereby they may be enabled certainly and infallibly to apply unto themselves the benefit of Christs death and do accordingly believe and persevere and attain Salvation 3. Supposita morte Christi pro omnibus hominibus intentione Dei conditionata de gratia promissionis Evangelicae generali addit intentionem Dei specialem de applicando beneficio mortis Christi per gratiam magis abundantem efficacem absolute certo infallibiliter solis electis fine praejudicio reliquorum D. Overal ibid. Art 2. The Third and Fourth ARTICLE Of Mans Corruption His Free-will His Conversion to God and the Manner of it OMnes consentiunt liberum arbitrium nihil boni posse sine gratia praeveniente comitante subsequente ita ut gratia teneat principium medium finem in conversione fide omni opere bono D. Overal ibid Art 3. 1. MAns will since the fall hath of it self no ability to any Spiritual Act every good motion of it must come from the Grace of God preventing accompaning following it yea naturally it is inclinable to all evill In voluntate Scilicet lapsa est potentia passiva ad esse hoc supernaturale extrinsecus adveniens recipiendum non autem activa ad idem vel per se vel cum alio producendum Theol. Brit. de Artic. 3. 4. Thes de conversione 2. Ipsam voluntatem bonam faciendo vivisicat Epist Synod Episc Afric cit ibid. 2. There is not therefore in the will of the naturall man any active power to work his own conversion In the regeneration God infuseth a new life he quickeneth the will by making it good Sunt quaedam opera externa ab hominibus ordinarie requisita priusquam ad statum regenerationis aut conversionis perducantur 3. There are yet certain foregoing acts that are prerequired to the conversion of a man and they are both inward and outward Quae ab iisdem quandoque libere fieri quandoque libere omitti solent ut adire Ecclesiam audire verbi praeconium id genus alia ibid 4. Outward as to go to the Church to sit reverently to hearken to the word spoken In these we have freedom of will either way Sunt quaedam effecta interna ad conversionem sen regenerationem praevia quae virtute verbi spiritusque in nondum justificatorum cordibus excitantur qualia sunt notitia voluntatis divinae sensus peccati timor poenae cogitatio de liberatione spes aliqua veniae ibid. Thes 2. Non solet gratia divina homines perducere per subitum Enthusiasmum sed multis praeviis actionibus ministerio verbi subactos praeparatos ibid. in explic Thes 2. 5. Inward as the knowledg of Gods will the feeling of our sin the fear of hell the thought of deliverance some hope of pardon for the grace of God doth not use to work upon a Man immediately by sudden raptures but by meet preparations informing the Judgment of his danger wounding the conscience by the terrours of the law suppleing it by the promises of the Gospel These inward Acts tending towards conversion are by the power of the word and Spirit of God wrought in the heart of a Man not yet justified Quos Deus mediaente verbo per spiritum suum hunc in modum afficit eos ad fidem conversionemque vere serio vocat invitat Theol. Brit. ibid. Thes 3. 6. Those whom God thus affects by his word and Spirit he doth truly and seriously call and invite to faith and conversion 7. Those whom he hath thus affected and called he forsakes not neither ceaseth to further in the way to their conversion till through their willing neglect or repulse of this initiall grace he be forsaken of them Quos ita afficit Deus non deserit nec desistit in vera ad conversionem via promovere priusquam ab illis per neglectionem voluntariam aut hujus gratiae initialis repulsam deseratur Hi praecedanei effectus virtute verbi spiritusque rebellis voluntatis vitio suffocari ac penitus extingui possunt in multis solent adeo ut nonnulli in quorum mentilus virtute verbi spiritusque
of our sins with Israels Yet one more do we think of the bold intrusion of presumptuous persons into the sacred calling without any commission from God Of whom do we think the Prophet Jeremy speaks The Prophets prophesy lies in my name I sent them not neither have I commanded them nor spake unto them They prophesy unto you a false vision and the deceit of their own heart Jer. 14.14 and again I have not sent these Prophets yet they run I have not spoken to them yet they prophesyed Jer. 23.21 To what purpose should I instance in more as I easily might as practical atheisme falsehood cruelty hypocrisy ingratitude and in a word universal corruption O England England too like to thy sister Israel in all her spiritual deformities if not rather to thy sister Sodome Behold this was the iniquity of thy Sister sodome pride fulnesse of bread and abundance of idlenesse was in her neither did she strengthen the hands of the poor and needy Ezechiel 16.49 Lo thou art as haughty as she and hast committed all her abominations But that which yet aggravates thy sin is thy stubborne incorrigiblenesse and impudence in offending is it not of thee that the Prophet Jeremy speaks This is a Nation that obeyeth not the voice of the Lord their God nor receiveth correction Jer. 7.28 For O our God hast thou not whipt us soundly and drawn blood of us in abundance yet wo is me what amendment hast thou found in us what one excesse have we abated what one sin have we reformed what one vice have we quitted Look forth brethren into the World see if the lives of men be not more loose and lawlesse their tongues more profane their hands more heavily oppressive their conversation more faithlesse their contracts more fraudulent their contempt of Gods messengers more high their neglect of Gods ordinances more palpable then ever it was Yea have not too many amongst us added to their unreformation an impudence in sinning Is it not of these that the Prophet speaketh Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination Nay they were not ashamed at all neither could they blush therefore shall they fall among them that fall in the time of their visitation they shall be cast down saith the Lord Jer. 8.12 By this time I suppose you see how too much cause we have to mourn for those sins of practise which have fetcht down judgments upon us turn your eyes now a little to those intellectual wickednesses which we call sins of Opinion Opinion think some of you now alas what so great offence can there be in matter of conceit and in those results of ours ratiocination which we picht upon in the cases of Religion let me tell you dear Christians what valuation soever you may please to set upon these capital errours of the understanding set abroach for the seduction of simple souls there is more deadly mischief and higher offence to God in them then in those practical evils which honest hearts profess to abhorr These as they are the immediate sins of our spirituall part so they do more immediately strike at the God of Spirits in his Truth and holinesse and as Religion is the highest concernment of the soul so the depravation of Religion must needs be most dangerous and damnable It is no marvell therefore if a truly-zealous Christian could even weep his eyes out to see hear those hellish heresies Atheous paradoxes which have poysoned the very air of our Church wherein they were vented One beats the keys into the sword or hangs them at the Magistrates girdle so as he suspends religion upon the meer will and pleasure of severaignty One allowes plurality or community of Wives another allows a man to divorce that wife he hath upon sleight occasions and to take another One is a Ranter another is a Seeker a third is a Shaker One dares question yea disparage the sacred Scriptures of God another denies the Souls immortality a third the Bodies resurrection One spits his poyson upon the blessed Trinity another blasphemes the Lord Jesus and opposes the eternity of his Godhead One is altogether for inspirations professing himself above the sphere of all Ordinances yea above the blood of Christ himself Another teaches that the more villanie he can commit the more holy he is that only confidence in sinning is perfection of sanctity that there is no hell but remorse To put an end to this list of blasphemies the very mention whereof is enough to distemper my tongue and your ears One miscreant dares give himself out for God Almighty Another for the Holy Ghost Another for the Lord Christ Another a vile adulterous strumpet for the Virgin Mary O God were there ever such frenzies possessed the braines of men as these sad times have yieled Was ever the Devil so prevalent with the sons of men Neither have these prodigious wretches smothered their damnable conceits in their impure breasts but have boldly vented them to the World so as the very presses are openly defiled with the most loathsome disgorgments of their wicked blasphemies Here here my dear brethren is matter more then enough for our mourning If we have any good hearts to God if any love to his truth if any zeal for his glory if any care for his Church if any compassion of either perishing or endangered souls we cannot but apprehend just cause of pouring out our selves into tears for so horrible affronts offered to the dread Majesty of our God for so inexpiable a scandal to the Gospel which we professe for so odious a conspurcation of our holy profession and lastly for the dreadful damnation of those silly souls that are seduced by these cursed impostors Ye have seen now what cause we have of mourning for sins both of Practise and Opinion It remaines now that we consider what cause of mourning we may have from our dangers for surely fear as it is alwayes joyned with grief so together with it is a just provoker of our tears And here if I should abridge all the holy Prophets and gather up out of them all the menaces of judgments which they denounce against their sinfull Israel I might well bring them home to our own doors and justly affright us with the expectation of such further revenge from Divine Justice for how can we otherwise think but that the same sins must carry away the same punishments The holy God is ever constant to his own most righteous proceedings if then our sins be like theirs why should we presume upon a dissimilitude of judgments Here then it is easy to descry a double danger worth our mourning for the one of further smart from the hand of God for our continuing and menacing wickednesse the other of further degrees of corruption from our selves For the first let that sad Prophet Jeremiah tell you what we may justly fear They are not humbled even unto this day neither have they feared nor walked in my law