an Arrian vnawares And therefore I maruel why Maister Harding should cal it an heretical conuenticle in a corner of the woorld And howebeit Arrianism were an heresie of heresies yet they indirectly confirmed it and being fraudulently circumuented when they sawe the error were verie sorit for their offence which they had committed in the simplicitie of their conceat of vnderstanding that it would be no great matter to relent in a * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 word and in fauour of a general peace If * Detect Pag. 250 b. force could excuse Liberius simplicitie in these deserueth softer words But both by Liberius his * Yet Platina reporteth that it was vpon respect of benefits and fauor forced subscription and by this generall councels misconstruing the capital heresie of Arrianisme was much confirmed And therefore we were best as Austine aduiseth to try our matters and causes at the touch-stone of the infallyble word of God and not at the erryng determynations of Popes or Byshops eyther sorted by them salues or seated together and that of late tymes not so much in a general as in a Gehennal councell of Pragmaticall Machiuels deuising howe they may cosen the woorld and exyle the true and ryght profession of perfit christianity wherefore they must bee withstood with courage and boldnes in the sight of all men as Paul resisted Peter From whom notwithstanding verilie as from one man and not as from a generall Councel of many the Pope maketh this his impossible and improbable claime of not erring but how erroniously we haue declared Hier. Ec. l. 6. c. 5 And Pigghius sayeth in the behalfe of the Pope that there is not a woord in the scriptures properly for general councels 15 Wee which are Iewes by nature not sinners of the Gentiles 16 Know that a man is not iustified by the works of the Law but by faith in Iesus Christ euen we haue beleeued in Iesus Christ that we might be iustified by the faith of Christ not by the works of the Law because by the works of the Law no flesh shal be iustified Paul hauing iustified and made good his authority by sundry proofes 1. By his immediate calling from God 2. By his dutifull diligence therein 3. By his equall conference with the cheefest pillars 4. And lastly by his iust reprouing Peter though he went not with aswift foote from the Gospel yet because he went not with a right foote in it and toward it now draweth happily by this and such like occasion to the chiefest matter and argument handled in this Epistle sheweth abundantly that no ceremonious rite no nor yet which God more respecteth can the works of men iustifie man And this he declareth by his own example by the example of others like himselfe We saith he whome he describeth 1. by their cōdicion 2. by their iudgemēt in christ 1 By condicion in a worde to say they were Iewes by nature Iewes that is so born so descended Phil. c. 3.5 And elswhere Paul saith of himselfe that he was a Iew an Hebrue of the tribe of Beniamin a zealous fellow once and a follower of the Law So were the Iews so was he not sinners of the Gentiles sinners both by nature that is by birth and by their bringing vp and so thought of by common reputation and called by our sauiour very * Matt. 15.26 Dogs Where by the way I marke two things 1. the great goodnes of God towarde the Iewes 2 and their infinit ingratitude towardes him So that what euer they were by their default yet by their condicion such they were so were esteemed of God euen as his peculiar people but with * Psal 147.20 other nations it was not so 2 The Apostles and Disciples ouer and besides their condicion very good in former time yet now altered to a better state were also of a right iudgment in christ they knew we know they knewe that the truckels swathing clothes of old ceremonies were for them but while they were childrē whom God so tendered kept for a time to that end that those ceremonies might be meanes the rather to lead them to Christ and not that they should be iustified in them or in any thing else that they did or could doe I cannot say as our Sauiour said to Nicodemus * Iohn 3.10 Are you Masters in Israel and know not these thinges I know you know them yet giue mee leaue a little that all may learne that which most of you know Neither is there any knoweledge in al the woorld like to this Wherefore the repetition thereof cannot be vngrateful An enquiry how man maie be Iustified before the iudgement seat of God A time shal come and a doome must be and a day is a ppointed when all flesh shall appeare and hold vp hand as it were answere guilty or not guilty before the tribunal seat of God that seeth the heart and searcheth the raines Heere in this plea of Iustice is required thou bee neither accessory nor principall to the least breach of the Law if thou wilt liue and be iustified and be quit thereby * Luk. 10.18 Hoc fac viues Doe this and liue Doe not this thou canst not liue Or doe what thou wilt if thou dost not this if thou dost not the Law only and wholy that it wil be thy vndoing thou canst not liue leaning to the Law and meaning to be iustified thereby Iob. 9.28 At the very remembrance hereof holy Iob wil feare his workes as nothing more and Dauid in remorse of his owne either secret sinnes or open faults and in consideration of the frailty of al flesh trembleth and saieth * Psa 130.3 If thou ô Lord marke what is done amisse who shal abide it Who shal stand in iudgement and sustaine thy wrath Whereupon I reason and make this reckoning If Iob the iust man feared if Dauid a man according to Gods owne hart trembled at this triall alas what shal others doe If the strong soldier feare and flye what shall become of the weake the same the blind What shal become of the vtterly impotent If the wind blowe away the solid wheat where shal the chaffe rest O Lord who is he or where is his dwelling that we may goe to him and common with him and heare a man that can saie and faie in truth my hart is cleane And if the heart be not cleane how vncleane are the hands If the spring be corrupt how polluted are the riuers Who in the woorld who one can answere one for a thousand And hee that aunswereth not all aunswereth not one In manie things saith Saint * Iam. 3.2 Iames we offend al. And in including all hee excludeth none and the Scripture hath expresly * Rom. 3.9 Galath 3.22 concluded all vnder sinne If then all be concluded vnder sinne if al offend and that in many thinges
well as the ceremonial and which are written TO DOE THEM and I take it DOING belongeth most properly to the Law moral which is of deedes Ye papistes would blind vs in the day of light and make vs beleeue Saint Paul speaketh of the ceremoniall Lawe which curseth and cannot bee borne and cannot iustifie But not of the Lawe morall not of the iustice of the Law which your Rabbi Vega and graund interpreter of your Tridentine conuent saith * Vega. de Iust lib. 14. c. 24. Paulus nunquam opponit Paul neuer opposed to the Law of faith If he neuer toldly before this is a master-ly and a ly with a witnesse Blessed are they that are vnder faith cursed are they that are vnder the Law If cursing and blessing be contrary then is the Law and faith contrary I say again this repugnancy is chiefly betwixt faith and the morall Law For therefore is the ceremonial Law in one respect contrary to faith because it bindeth man to the perfect obseruation of the morals vnder paine of a curse which is a dangerous Doctrine an absurde opinion and an impossible aduenture For Paul laieth it downe that no man is iustified by the Lawe c. Hee meaneth not onely the Iewes who somewhat or among the Iewes he meaneth not only the Priests and Leuits and the like who were most occupied in the ceremonies but NO MAN no not anie man where euer vnder the cope of heauen can bee iustified by the Law moral For he meaneth that which hee thinketh might extend to any which in his owne iudgement was not the ceremoniall but yet by name also afterward 4. Chap. the ceremoniall rite of circumcision is reiected euen therefore because it was a couenant and inducement and as I may so speak a brissel to drawe in the yoke of the morals in the causes of iustifying which Paul could not brooke So that this controuersie of iustification is no new question The false Apostles were predecessors to the Papists in the chiefest ground of their intolerable pride of woorkes Mary if mans workes were perfect then the case were altered And then man should not be man or the woorkes of man should be perfecter than man the worker and so God should accept the woorke before the workdoer But god respecteth first * Gen. 4.4 Abels person thē his work And if the person be imperfect the works cannot be perfect And therefore mans imperfit works cānot claim by the law which requireth perfection which is far frō man since his fall The Law requireth al or none in the question of iustifieng The Law is not contēt with a good entrance and a reasonable continuance but cursed is hee that continueth not without interruption in al that was written Pharao with much adoe granted leaue vnto Moses to goe aside a litle Sacrifice But Moses would not accept thereof because God had commaunded him otherwise And hee would not go but according to the forme prescribed with male and female with young and oulde with their children seruants with their cattle al euē with al or with none he would not he durst not leaue one houffe behind Exod. 10.26 Iam. 3.2 The distinction of venial sin is a vaine conceat Sēblably the Law will haue all or none Yet in many things wee offend al that not sleightly or venially after a Popish fancy for he that offendeth in one offēdeth in all in offending him that will haue all or none And the breach of all I trow is mortal sinne accusing and accursing all and how then call you these prety pety venial sins Or how can the Law accru as cause of iustifieng wherein should doth consist euerlasting blisse whereas it layeth an heauy curse vpon all that leane therunto Durgus fo 298. The Scottish Iesuit saith Moses Law extendeth not to the least pointes of the Lawe but note That where God commandeth a hide a heare or a houffe is not to be omitted Other of the papists fondly restraine the worde All to al that go to worke only with natural faculties and who exclude and shut out grace quite in offending or els in dooing the Lawe If this were the Galathians opinion let the Lawe also winne the goal and weare the garland Let Papistes be beeleeued and let Master Stapleton bee credited No. The false Apostles in wordes and in their doctrine euen as the Papists they taught the grace of God annexed the Gospell of Christ then callenged the name of Apostolicke teachers though they were false Apostles in so doing yea so far foorth that they were reputed men linckt in and ioyned with Peter who neuer was imagined to teach the Lawe vtterly secluding faith Wherefore that is but a friuolous conceit and therefore verily verily if wee stand to bee iustified by the Law in what state soeuer the nature of the Law accurseth therefore I pray you recognize your * De vniu Iust doct lib. 6. c. 13 interpretation Master Stapleton and I trust euen as the country fellow the more he told his geese the fewer hee found them so the oftner yee looke vpon your Imaginations the woorse ye will like it But Saint Paul leaueth not the Galathians thus If blessing if happinesse if iustification if saluation if life euerlasting for all these diuers wordes in sound are one and the same in sense and meaning if these come not from the Law whence come they then Paul sheweth 11 For the iust shall liue by faith 12 And the Law is not of faith but the man that shal doe those things shal liue in them 13 Christ hath redeemed vs from the curse of the Lawe being made a curse for vs. For it is written Cursed is euery one that hangeth on tree 14 That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Christ Iesus that wee might receaue the promise of the spirit through faith Diuerse words may inculcat one and the same thing after a various manner of speaking Whereas Iustification cōmeth 1. Not by the priuilege of Abrahams fleshe 2. Nor by dignity of workes because of the woorkers imperfection and the exact perfectnes required in the Lawe Paul directeth three distinct waies yet al of them meeting and agreeing in the end and indeede not the waies but the woordes are diuerse whereby our iustification is vttered to be attained We are not iustified by Lawe Whence then 1. First by faith 2. Thē by christ crucified 3. And lastly by the promise of the spirit and these three are but one Liuing redemption and blessing in sense is one So liuing by faith in Christ redemption purchased by Christ and the spirituall promise of Christ hath not a diuerse meaning whereby we liue and are saued For my faith is in christ the promise was of Christ and Christ is the perfection and performance thereof in the daies of his flesh and vpon his Crosse But consider we apart the variety and so the
or contrarie his former deedes which must needs be if Righteousnes should come by the Law 19 Wherefore then serued the Law It was added because of transgressions till the seede came vnto the which the promise was made and it was ordained by Angels in the hand of a mediator 20 Now a mediator is not of one but God is one 1 When the Lawe entred and what that inferreth ferreth hath beene said Now see 2. why it entred and in whom it ended 2 It entred because of transgressions to teach vs our faultes and so to traine vs to Christ in whom it ended Yea when the Law was first made in great maiesty by the reason of the presence of angels and other circumstances of great reuerence euē then it was ordained in the The variety of expositions vpon this place is an endles laberinth I haue shortly paraphrased what I thinke hands and in strength of a mediatour to follow And a mediator is of things different in themselues and contrary Wherefore the Lawe and the promise are contrarie and not one though God in geuing his Lawe and in making the promise bee one Yet because the former reason might bee misconstred as if Paul saide that in al respectes they were contrarie he questioneth as followeth 21 Is the Lawe then against the promise of God God forbid for if there had beene a Lawe giuen which could haue giuen life surely righteousnes should haue beene by the Law 22 But the Scripture hath concluded al vnder sinne that the promise by the faith of Iesus Christ should be giuen to them that beleeue How the Law is contrary and not contrary to the promise These wordes Is the Lawe then contrary to the promise God forbid may seeme to reuoke what I said right now For I shewed that they were contrary and I say they are contrary But my brethren mistake me not but marke I pray you marke what I say and how I vouch all that I say out of our Apostle If there had beene a law which coulde haue giuen life then what needed Christ If the Scriptures had not concluded men vnder sin what had needed the promise So that the Law fulfilled if it could be by men is contrarie to the promised saluation by God But when we looke into the glasse of the Law shewing our transgressings into the Scriptures concluding al Rom. 3.9 euen A L without exception of any vnder sin the Lawe and Scriptures send vs schoole vs to Christ and so the Law being thus lawfully vsed is not contrary to the promise God forbid but a seruiceable helpe to driue vs to Christ in whom we finde that which the Law will neuer allow vs. If we seeke life in the Law it is a killing letter if saluation it worketh condemnation if righteousnesse it concludeth all vnder sinne if rest it is a temporall ordinance and endured but till the seed came in the seede was made the free promise and is obtained the perfect blessing by faith in Christ of al that beleeue The Law considered in it self what it worketh The Lawe cannot teach thus much but he that looketh into the law and seeth his sinnes will seeke for helpe I wis not in his deedes or in the Lawe Mat. 13. and when hee hath found it in the Gospel he will not leaue it for all the geld Iewels and treasures in the world 23 But before faith came we were kept vnder the Lawe as vnder a garison and shut vp vnto that faith which should afterward bee reuealed 24 Wherefore the Lawe was our schoolemaster to Christ that we might be made righteous by faith 25 But after that faith is come wee are no longer vnder a schoole-master The lawfull vse of the Law was some-way to some may be in cases to be by resemblance 1. A prison 2. A schoole-master 3. A tutor A prison for the guiltie a schoole-master for the vnskilful A tutor as it were to the ward and pupil For this third similitude wee will debate more in the beginning of the next Chapter The Law a prison 1 For the first similitude of the three no doubt they which were in prison and felt what it was to be in prison and what it was to be deliuered longed to be deliuered And when the deliuerance came which was Christ the keeper yeelded vp his keies the doore of the prison was opened and the prisoners set at that good liberty which wee call and is a Christian liberty no carnall security The Law a schoolemaster 2 The Law also was a schoole-master and that in two respects either because of their ceremonies or els for their morals The ceremonies kept the Iewes in on euery side and sequestred them from other people the decalog and morall Law followeth them hard and driueth them and vs all to confesse our weakenesse and so schooleth vs to craue aide of Christ because it was vtterly impossible to reach home and to attaine vnto the hauen of blessednesse by the Law and so the Lawe in this meaning becommeth deseruice-able to force vs to Christ and being nowe in Christ our dutifull obedience proceedeth of faith and trust in his mercy not vpon a performance of his Lawe which if we could and did performe Christ might be excluded For why came Christ but to free vs from the prison and to take vs out of the hand of our former schoolemaster These similitudes are pregnant and plaine to this sense and to this sense only Paul doth apply them 26 For ye are all the sonnes of God by faith in Christ Iesus 27 For yee that are baptized into Christ haue put on Christ 28 There is neither Iew nor Graecian there is neither bond nor free there is neither male nor female for ye are all one in Christ Iesus 29 And if yee bee Christs then are ye Abrahams seede and heires by promise And when we are once preferred vnto and receiued of Christ 1. We are the sonnes of God in Christ 2. Wee are baptized into Christ 3. Wee haue put on Christ Here is no mention of the Law here is no difference of peoples Iew or Graecian no distinction in condition bond or free no respect of sex male or female All are one in christ and if we be Christs it followeth by necessary sequele that we are Abrahams seede and heires of the promise without the Law now as well as hee was long before the Law was made O Christian man what art thou Know thy calling and consider the blessed state of Christian profession thou art the sonne of God but by what meanes Through faith In whome and by whose merit In Christ Christian Baptisme disproueth iustification by the Law As many things demonstrate this truth so in the Church doth baptizme being receaued of all sorts and sexes generally most euidently declare the same The bath of thy regeneratiō doth tel thee who art baptized into Christ that thou thereby hast an entrance into his
commaundement And therein Constantine who indicted the Councell tooke no more vpon him than hee might and ought Neither was he deligated thereunto by Bishoppely power For the * Euseb in vita Const orat 3. one and onely God appointed him to that ministery And what the Bishoppes had ouerthrowne Constantine renued and * Theod. lib. 1. cap. 14. built vp I pray you where was then and where was al this while that meere necessity vnto saluation to be in subiection to the Romane prelate Some good * Anno. 198. time before this when Victor a Bishop of Rome was tampering and ouer-busily intermedling with other mens doings he was vehemently reproued by * Euseb lib. 5. Ireny in France and countermaunded by the Bishoppes of Asia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they disswaded him as much as he would haue perswaded others wherein was no subiection but a slat resistance euen as Paul resisted Peter I could be large herein but I referre them who would see many good particulers in this case learnedly laid foorth D. Bilson to D. BILSON against D. ALLEN and the Iesuits in his book entieled A true difference betweene Christian subiection and vnchristian rebellion Part. 1. And whereas some say Victors reproofe was in a matter but of discipline verily discipline and direction in regiment is their God and whereof they esteem more than of heauen it selfe Wherefore be it wherein it shal be therein certes they were not subiect to the Romish Bishop And a trueth in doctrine importeth vs much more than a rite in discipline therefore if they might resist him in discipline where was then that subiection euery way necessary to saluation And if hee might erre in discipline much more may he erre in doctrine For the decision of reasonable orders is farre easier than doubts in doctrine Therefore if the Pope may so soone stumble in the plain hee may farre sooner ouer-shout himselfe in a suffer way Directly for the Popes erring in doctrine * Lyra in â—… Matth. Lyra is cleare and full Many Popes haue bin found to haue bin Apostataes Many and not a few onely haue bin certainly found not probably thought to haue beene Apostataes It is no fable no forgery they haue bin found conuinced so to haue bin But Apostasie is a forsaking of the faith and euery Apostata is alwaies an eager persecutor of his former faith And therefore the Pope may be not only a decider of error but a persecutor of the faith If they aske me what be in speciall the Popes errors I tel them he erreth in hiding the candel of the Scriptures vnder the bushell of a strange language in praying ignorantly without vnderstanding in not praying to God alone in worshipping Images in mangling and deprauing the Sacraments in preferring himselfe before Gods worde and aboue his Church in a thowsand mo And sirs why aske you me Lyra saith your Popes haue bin Apostataes You may not mistrust his report he was a Friar and therefore a credible witnesse and not partially affected but to the Papacy and therefore the more force-able against you and the lesse to be suspected of you You followe him you * Harding detec Pag. 256. Mast Harding counteth Lira a good interpreter of the Text but a slender witnes to depose a trueth gladly vse him in the opening of a text in exposition of Scriptures why not a great deale rather in his depositions for antiquitie in a matter of story Or was his outward sense corrupted and his inward iudgement good Could he not rightly discerne a fact in men but rather a trueth in the text and that about things depending on the text as in questions of faith and Apostasie from the faith If there were any fault in Lyra it seemeth to be rather for that in fauour to that see he toucheth but in general and treateth not the particularities of your Popes Apostasies And yet while the monumeÌ„ts of times books of writers before Printing was inuented were hardily copied out and were few in number soon lost and easily corrupted and being in your own handes and handling and your selues ready to make away the euidences which made most against your Pope what marueil if Lyra and Lyraes like be vsed as * Acts. 5.2 Ananias and Saphira vsed their goods and so authors in steede of their whole and perfect workes brought to light by halfes maimed and imperfect And yet God hath so prouided that there should be notwithstanding some and those sufficient witnesses in popery to conuince their Popes of grieuous errors But let vs view their dealing a litle in this behalfe But first be it remembred that Lyra saith that manie Popes though he name them not in special that many Popes haue plaid the Apostataes from the faith though particularly he citeth not wherein and in what points yet this is sufficient For ther is no multitude without a number no general number of Popes without particular Popes And it may be he ment the whole faith and therefore doeth not put downe the specialities Nowe for farther proofe of their corruptions Pope * C. Laudabilem de conuersione infidelium Celestinus decreed an error flat against Saint Paul that the crime of heresie dissolueth the band of marriage in so much that Innocentius was faine to repeale the same and decret the contrary If they aske me now where is that decree Truly I cannot tell what you haue doone with it Since yee came to this fine shift that the Pope could not forsooth erre that paragraph could not be much seene abroade The gloze saith it was among the Decretals * Lib. 1. aduers haereses cap. 4. Alphonsus de Castro sawe it there in an ould booke marry sirs if you can vse the definitions decrees and determinations of your Popes after this fashion and then come and require vs to shew that your Pope hath decreed an error that not what we count an error but what your selues would repute error as wel as we truely we neede reply no farther but that iniquity is spunne of a fine threed and that this is the very mystery of Antichrist and that hee departeth from the faith and yet vnder a most presumptuous pretence that 〈◊〉 he cannot erre in faith When God was most serued almost alone locally in the territory of Iewry they were perilous lying words to affixe wisedome the word the law to theÌ„ that visibly occupied their callings in the Church of god Ier. 18. And why is it not so much more now when whosoeuer feareth God Acts. 10. and therefore wheresoeuer god is feared there there is no such respect of persons or places as sometimes was For the very Church of Rome by name Paul warneth to look to her duty to see to her footing and putteth downe the condition of her standing Rom. 11.20 and either in the one of the other the warning or the condition doth argue that they are not
vehemency of the Apostles woordes thus varied Faith instifieth 1 The first speech is that the iust shal liue by faith This was prooued and sufficiently proued before by the example and faith of Abraham But abundant proofes for the foundation of christian faith are not superfluous and must not bee tedious to eares and minds erected and settled to heare and marke the euidences of their saluation The Prophet Abacuc saith Habak 2.4 that the iust shall liue by faith In the end of the first and in the beginning of the second chapter of his prophesie the Iewes appeere to haue bin in a pitiful case Their enimies were no small enimies The Chaldaeans were a terrible and a feareful people a bitter and a furious nation wel manned and horses as fierse as woolues swifter than the Leopards and of flight like the eagle hasting after her meate These Chaldeans molested the Iews on euery side spoiled them as the East-wind the fruit deuoured them as the great fish deuoureth the smal yea they caught the Iews as it were fish into their nets and * Prosperitie prouender in an excessiue measure marreth man beast they tooke them as fast as they could cast in and pul vp and thereby they grew fat and their portion was great and plenteous And thereupon they wared in loue of their own might and wanton again with their prosperous successe They Sacrificed to their nets they burnt incense to their yarn they were glad in hart stroked their own heads that could deuise and kissed their own handes that had compassed so great matters The Iewes in this hard case what should they doe Round about wheresoeuer they looked they saw present danger and no possible helpe or hope in man Notwithstanding God doth denounce that the pride of the presumptuous that trusted in themselues should come to nothing and the iust should liue by his faith and his people for all this because they trusted in God they were iust euen as the Caldeans were therefore vniust because they crusted in themselues and the Iewes as they were iust so should they liue in god in whom they trusted euen by their faith And therefore their iustification with God was their faith and trust in God and in God alone most then when all helpes els failed as appeareth in their greatest extremities Workes are imperfect Imperfect deedes were no deserts and could not helpe out of bodily calamities much-lesse in cases of saluation euerlasting and the iust man beleeueth not in himselfe much-lesse in his workes his faith goeth out of himselfe and resteth in God through Christ in whom amongst a million or a myriad of Caldeans in the midst of all fierse and false Catholiques our faith in Christ shall neuer faile We are iustified in Christ wee are saued by Christ we liue by Christ And thus is onely faith in him opposed set against all the meritricious or meritorious putatiue deserts of fraile and sinful flesh supposed to be answerable to the law which can neuer bee for if the Iewes could haue doone the Lawe they might haue claimed of God their deliuerance for their good workes For he that doth the things of the Law shal liue in them No they needed and so do all an other redeemer which must saue them all out of the hands of the Law and from our breaches thereof and the Caldeans rage is but a phillip or a flea-biting to the curse of the Lawe Christ redeemeth is the only comfort of a conscience that hath a sense of sin and any tast of true consolation 2 The redemption from this curse is Christ on his Crosse hanged on tree The Iew stumbleth at this faith and the Gentile scorneth this Doctrine but the godly saith in hart that which Ignatius vttered in wordes My loue is crucified The obiect of my faith the ground of my hope the marke the matter of my trust and confidence my delight my loue my life the cause of life euerlasting my ful redemption and perfect saluation my Iesus was Crucified and endured the curse for my sake This was no slender punishment nor small paine and were it the griefe but of a bodily torment it were grieuous but our redemption was not in respect of the paine of the body onely or of the sorrowes of the soule onely but in regarde of the sinnes of both and that not for one man but for the sinnes of the worlde The penitent sinner The better to conceiue the force of this deserued paine and the effect of sinne see it in a repentant sinner he standeth farre off he beateth on his thigh knocketh on his brest hangeth downe head watereth his eies with teares and wearieth his heart with sighes and findeth no rest in his soule for sorrow of sinnes neither should he euer finde rest at all were it not for this redemption which is in Christ The state of a forlorne cast-away For the reprobate who hath no part in this saluation howe many bees hath hee in his head how many pegs in his hart how many very helles in his soul how many trayterous thoughts that trouble him euerlastingly Euen such is the force of sinne where sinners are left to themselues But Christ our blessed Sauiour hath taken that vpon him that we could not beare and hath endured the curse of the Law not for the sinnes of one man or in one kinde but for the sinnes of all the worlde Sufficiently and for al the sinnes of al sortes in all his chosen Effectually to their ful and finall redemption If now there be any that can chalenge any part of this ransome let him commense his action against our Sauiour that hath taken and against Paul that hath prescribed giuen him the whole glory of mans redemption as who only sustained being not onely man but God and man the insupportable waight of sinne in satisfieng for sinne in pacifieng the Father in answering his iustice in enduring the curse and malediction of the Law From what things we are redeemed O my brethren let Papists ride vpon a reed or catch hold on a ragge of a tottered good woorke this and only this is our redemption which hath redeemed vs from the intolerable yoke the importable burden and the insufferable curse of the Lawe from that seruile feare and legall terror which the Lawe induceth wherein Austins short and sweet difference being well vnderstood betwixt the Law and the Gospell appeareth which he deliuered to be in two wordes FEARE and LOVE Wee loue good woorkes vnder the Gospell according to the rule of the Law but we fear not the curse of the Law wanting that perfection which in right it requireth for wee are redeemed and ransomed our debt is paid and our curse was abolished when our Sauiour was crucified Wee loue him and in loue we liue well but in case especially of life euerlasting wee leane to no other redemption than to his Crosse for so we liue as
we loue and so we loue as we beleeue and so wee beleeue as we know and we know in part Ergo we beleeue we loue we liue but in part as wee should And a partial perfection a maimed imperfect performance of the Law alas what can it do It is imperfect so that still and euer when wee haue doone what we can we haue doone but that was but due therefore not deseruing for due is duty and debt and no desert Nay we cannot do so much as we should or if wee could do all yet wee were vnprofitable And therefore this is our refuge and only resolution to cleaue to remission of and vnto the redemption from our sins And with what face can one and the same mouth craue his pardon and challenge his guerdon Beleeue in Christ and trust in merits Once againe this is the trueth we holde and the trust we haue Christ is our redemption The blessing commeth by promise 3 The blessing of Abraham then commeth vnto many promised by God in Christ receiued by faith For the promise of the spirit the spiritual promise requireth no humane fleshly helpe but a firme faith altogither relying vpon the goodnesse of the promiser So that iustification blisse and the heauenly inheritance commeth by promise and if by promise then not by the Law verse 18. This our aduersaries see well inough and yet against the heare Rhemish test pag. 430. I feare me against their own conscience they raue and raile at this truth and call the woordes of the holy Ghost A friuolous a false euasion of heretickes Because wee say That heauen is our reward not due to woorkes not due to the Law but to the promise of God Is this a friuolous or a false or an euidētly false euasion Or is it a shift or an euasion of hereticks Verily if this be heresie we worship our God and receiue his free promise according to the way which you call heresie But in calling vs heretickes you terme Saint Paul an hereticke you charge the holy Ghost with heresie And no maruel * Old ignorant Priestes say that S. Pole was a Sainct but Paul was an heretique Your olde Priestes were woont like bolde blind-baiards to vouch vpon their priesthood that Paul was an hereticke Yea euen the old famous Fugger was content at length that Gesner shuld teach his children some peece of the Testament but in any case they should not bee trained vp in any of Pauls Epistles For doubtles Paul was a very Protestant a perfect professor of the truth which pardoners masse-priests and merit-mongers cried out against In the question of Saluation Paul standeth euer vpon Grace Mercye Fauour Gift Faith and the promise c. And if by these and namely If by promise then not by the Lawe vers 18. But these words sauour of heresie belike ô come not neere them least they infect and make thee an hereticke like vnto Paul Nay my Brethren imbrace them and bind them vp as a treasure and beare in thy brest laie them to thy heart as the onely treacle of thy soule against the daie of temptation and the assault of the cruel find The promise riseth from the goodnes of him who promised not from the deserts of men to whom God made his promise Thy woorkes when thou wast not coulde not prouoke God to promise a due stipend vnto them as deseruing when they were not but his promise was as ishuing out of himselfe and therefore free and gracious and so not meritted and deserued And if this be heresie by this heresie we liue and in this heresie wee trust to ende our daies hoping after this immortality to enioy that free promised inheritance through Iesus Christ our Sauiour 15 Brethren I speake according to man though it bee but a mans testament when it is confirmed no man doth abrogate or addeth thereto There are three principal matters handled by our Apostle in the residue of this chapter 1. First that inuiolably the promise was so to be receiued as it was deliuered 2. Then in whom the promise was made 3. Thirdly when and at what time it was solemnly ordained For the due respect of the promise to bee in sense so constered as it was ment by the intendment of the promiser without adding or alteration the Apostle condescendeth to the capacity of a common example in mans ordinarie experience I speake according to man After the manner of men taking the best way to be vnderstood The plainest teacher is the best teacher Wher by the waie I note that the plainest waie of teathing is best Not to fetch and skir about without distinct proofes in doctrine and fit application Vain affectation in preaching As the ignorant loose talker is no preacher so the curious Corinthian Orator is no right instructer Colours of vaine affectation minsing of phrases brauery of speech pruning euery syllable as the Doue her feathers is not worth a feather Saint Paul speaketh not to shewe himselfe in the wisedom of words Apollo in the Acts is reported to be eloquent but withal his might was out of the Scriptures Lime is white and faire but stone and sand firme and strong downe-right preceptes doe better in the building vp of a good vnderstanding Spiders webbes and curiosities are little woorth plaine parables easie similitudes most familiar and best knowen are euer best God that made the preachers toong could haue made it as woonderfully glorious as man could wish but he will not haue his Ghospell so vttered his Christ so preached our faith so instructed his truth so taught Hee commandeth the conscience he seeketh not to please the itching eare The curious eare is not the good eare And by such intising wordes the simplicity of the Gospell leeseth hir proper effect For the Lorde dealeth with you as with his children and you must attentiuely listen what hee commandeth you by vs and not respect the frame of our sentences or the conueiance of a Rhetorical grace of vtterance Curiosiry in the Countrie O Lord Oxford should not neither doth it sin so deeply in this sinne as doth the country Young men comming latelier from their secular studies and labours in humane learninges come vnto you God be thanked for them and a while retaine some more remnantes and spoiles of Egypt than either their elders doe or themselues will afterward being farther enriched by longer trauel and exercise in the booke of God and will you make and force their ensamples euen against their wils to preiudice a daiely or a weekely endeuour in a discreete a distinct and in a carefull and most plaine manner of deliuery You may not De conducendo loquitur iam Rhetore Thule The countrie now can brooke nothing but a flaring gaudy garish eloquence falsely so called When saint Paul speaketh after the manner of men hee meaneth not thereby to tickle the eares of vaine men but to affect their heartes and to enstruct their
but it flieth into it Man naturally is giuen rather to know what hee cannot learne than to doe what he knoweth and should learne to the ende to doe thereafter If the Kings of Persia might weare a Lawne before their faces because they would not be commonly seene why may not the King of Kings the inuisible God keepe the reason of his doinges vnder the veile of his owne determinations counfels or why was it forbidden men to run before or to prie into or to presse too neer the Arke but to represse mans vain humor in quareling with or enquiring after the causes reasons of Gods dealings To this very same end Paul here entering into the declaration of the comming of our Sauiour to mussel the mouth that is open euer to question why he came but now and why not before he sheweth the fulnes of time was not til then God doth al things in number in measure and weight in order and time There is no confusion in his actions though he keepe the causes secret to himselfe And what mā is worthy to be of the priuy counsell of the Almighty God There was a time prefixed by God that should content man When the fulnesse of that time was brim full then and not before then he performed his purposed wil. He could he that is Almighty could haue with a word ipse dixit he spake the word and al things were created hee could if he would haue made all the whole Fabrick and furniture of the world in a moment But he would not Why It is a vile an Atheists and an impious WHY He did not and therefore he wold not For whatsoeuer he would he hath done both in heauen and in earth The causes of the course of things in ordinarie euents are not knowen to man Thou curious man aunswere mee but to the least why that I shall aske Why was thou not borne as soone as thou wert begotten Nay why was thou begotten at al and not rather framed as God made Adam And when thou art borne why art thou not an olde man strait Why is not euery blacke heare gray hory in an instant Why is it not hygh noone at the rising of the sunne If tyme be required in these thinges and in the like and if in the requiring of time recourse also must necessarily bee made to God so ordering the processe of thinges to haue a foorth by pase and pase and by degrees by little and litle til there be a ripenes in continuance I pray thee why may not God appoint a fulnes of time for the sending of his sonne into the world but thou must put in thy quare and thy why For shame lay hand vpon thy mouth subscribe to his will resigne thy selfe vp to his wisedome adore his counsels and be not curious in anie of his doings For he that is curious in any will bee ouercurious in many There is no stay in folly It is an * 2 King 20.10 easier thing for the sunne as Ezechias said to go on extraordinarily many degrees because it is naturally prone to go on than to returne backe against his course but a fewe so curiosity is soone emboldned but hardly repressed and seldome reformed In the fulnes of time God sent his Son made of woman and made vnder the Lawe that hee might redeeme them which c. Wherein is set foorth 1. The person of Christ and 2. His office The person of Christ fullie laide forth 1 His person is being God sent his son and being man made of a woman The wise Grecian and the wilful Heretique at the very hearing hereof are at their wittes ends and quite besides themselues Eutyches denieth the Godhead Nestorius the manhoode Marcian the bodie Apollinaris the soule of our Sauiour The naturall man considereth onelie naturall things he knoweth that euerie child hath a father that begetteth a Mother that beareth but these things in Christ hee cannot find he knoweth lesse herein than is storied of Melchisedeck whose parentes are vnknowen And indeede therein was * Melchisedeck a type of Christ Melchisedeck a type of Christ So was hee For according to his humanitie Christ was without a naturall father and according to his diuinity without mother And yet notwithstanding was he begotten of his father before al worldes and borne of his mother in the woorld at the fulnes of time being the Sonne of God and the sonne of a woman The sonne of God and such as is the father such is the sonne The father God ergo the sonne God also And the Son of Marie Such as is the Mother such is the fruite of her womb and therefore because the Mother was a woman her sonne is a man euen the man Iesus perfect God perfect man hauing both natures absolutely vnited in one person our Immanuel god with vs equal to the father touching his godhead inferiour to the father touching his manhood Equal to the father as being in the * Phil. 2.6 forme of God inferiour to the father as beeing in the form of a seruant mā Wherfore in essence being substance nature he was both Forma dat esse he was formally therefore verily both Equall to his father as being the personal word of his father * Iob. 1.1 in the beginning eternally with God coequally and verie God essentially and yet inferiour to the father as the woorde became fleshe dwelt amongest men was made man and manifested in the flesh by infallible arguments he hungred thirsted waked slept and slept in a shippe like a poore naturall man ouer-wearied with labour and hee slept so soundly that neither the rufnesse of the sea nor the rage of the tempests nor his Disciples redoubling * Luk. 8.24 their calling Master Master could skant awake him He was tempted in the wildernes reproched in the cities and skourged in the hal and crucified and made a curse and a subiect to the Lawe in euery point yet these thinges also concerne rather his office but such was his person 2 * The office of Christ His office which hee erecuted to the full was in one word to redeeme them which were vnder the Lawe that wee might receaue the adoption of Sonnes Wherefore the seruitude vnder the Lawe and the adoption to be Sonnes are two diuerse and contrary things and cannot stand together For Christes office was to redeeme vs first from the Law before wee might bee receaued into the adoption to be Sonnes And thus was the natural Sonne of God made after a supernatural maner very man that of seruantes we might bee made Sonnes And if wee will needes require reason in the greatest work of God Why Christ should be both God and man to the effectual performance of his office great reason was it the hy-Priest of the newe Testament and mediatour betweene God and man should bee both God man in the execution of this pearlesse function God whereby he might
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Onely expect we in patience the Lordes leasure knowing assuredly that God wil make vs a forth and a way amids al temptations Neither wil hee suffer his children to be tempted aboue their measure Dauid had his Goliath Sampson his Lion to encounter with God knew the measure of Dauids courage and Sampsons strength Physitions giue the strongest potions to the strongest bodies And health is most acceptable after the greatest sicknes And the ioy of the sick soule is then enlarged when it returneth after sorrowe and then is the cry of the spirite heard with a quicker sense when for a while it had not beene heard at al. And thus much for the consequent that because we are sonnes wee are therefore endued with his spirite assuring vs though not euer alike Rom. 9. that we are his sonnes and heires because it crieth and certifieth our harts that God through Christ is become our father 8 But euen then when ye knew not God yee did seruice vnto them which by nature are not Gods 9 But now seeing yee know God yea rather are knowen of God how turne yee againe vnto impotent and beggerly rudiments wherunto as from the beginning yee wil be in bondage againe 10 Yee obserue daies and moneths and times and yeares 11 I feare of you least I haue bestowed on you labour in vaine The best way of discerning is euer to compare matters times persons causes condicions and circumstances together Paul taketh this course and sheweth them 1. What they were they knew not God c. 2. What they are they know God or rather are knowen of God c. 3. And therefore their relapse is strange to the beggerly Elementes and thereupon hee feareth their greater danger to ensue The effectes of Ignorance The condicion and state wherein the Galathians liued was in ignoraunce and liuing in ignorance of the liuing God they serued them which by nature were no Gods For certes if they had knowen the true God they woulde haue serued him Ioh. 4. The woman of Samaria if she had known with whom she talked as Christ requested water of hir so would shee haue craued of him the waters of eternal life Mat. 25. The wise Virgins had their entrance with the bride and haue their due commendation for they were wise But the folish virgins though virgins yet because they were fooles and ignorant reaped the sour fruit of their security are reputed thereafter were excluded when the bride was entred Ephes 2. The Ephesians to whom our Apostle writeth the next Epistle what were they How liued they Read the second chapter They folowed the sway of this sinful woorld Sathan ledde the dance hee went before and they thronged after their whole conuersation was altogether in the lusts and wil of the flesh Aske yee the reason They were Aliants from the common wealth of Israel they were strangers from the couenant of the promise they were in the same case were these Galathians and al the Gentils else they had no hope and were very Atheists that is men without God Aske yee why they were Atheists why they hoped not why they trusted not in God The answere is easie and was laide downe in the woordes before because they were strangers and vnacquainted with gods promises Testimonies and Lawes because they were Aliantes from the statutes and ordinances of his church and common wealth because in one woord they knew not God therefore they serued false Gods and by name Diana and cried out like man men Acts. 19. Magna est Diana Ephesiorum Great is Diana the Goddes of the Ephesians Read the thirteenth and the fourteenth Chapters of Wisedom and you should see it vouched that many inconueniences specially Idolatry and the seruice of strange gods and very Idols came in by Ignorance And were mens eies in their heads and their sight cleared and enabled so as to discerne but indifferently it were impossible that the wicked inuention the doctrine of lying the discipline of vanity the multitude of Idolatrous seruices shoulde so preuaile and that men shoulde serue as God that which is incomparably woorse than man that man made by his creation after the Image of God shoulde creepe to a materiall crosse gad to a shrine say my father to a peece of wood yea that a man purposing to saile the Seas should call vpon a stocke and a rotten Roode more rotten than the vessel that carieth him But ignorance is the mistres the mother and the nurse of this deuotion or rather superstition Rom. 4.21 The Romanes because they knewe not God they glorified him not but became vnthankful vanishing away in their Imaginations And why Their foolish harts were ful of dareknesse And being fooles they turned the glory of God into the similitude of innumerable increadible and corruptible vanities In this state at the first were the Romans the Ephesians the Galathians c. And al through ignorance I could dilate and be long and enter disputation with our known and neerest aduersaries because of their introducing and bringing in because of their maintenance and supportation of intolerable Ignorance and Idolatry I know they haue shiftes and distinctions curiously wrought but spiders webs cannot holde out winde or weather The worshipping of Images The ignorant is ignorant hee knoweth not the difference they vainely make of Douly and Latry and Hyperdouly and it is a toy and greeke as we say to the people And it is greeke indeede and that to the English man that knoweth nothing but his owne language And in his ignorance hee creepeth and croucheth lifteth vp handes and falleth downe and adoreth all the Images in their Temples and knoweth litle God knoweth what these sorry proportions and terms meane I aske you do you know them Douly Latry Hyperdouly I know you know them not O learne to know God and thou will worship God alone and in such sort as himselfe hath prescribed But liue in Ignoraunce and straite thou rangest inordinately and seruest straunge gods euen as the children of Israel when the onely God had wrought their strong delyuerance yet sacrificed and gaue the praise thereof euen to a Calfe that eateth hey And say not say not brethren that you you serue not strange gods for all this The Israelites sayde they worshipped God when they adored a Calfe you say you worship God when you fal downe before the Image of the father before the picture of his sonne or of his Saintes but they worshipped strange gods notwithstanding and so doe you in that you worshippe God after a straunge manner which is not Gods-worshippe but a wil-worship and an idol of your owne deuising and that expresly against the scriptures and all for want of true knowledge and by reason of ignorance The making of Images Moses conuenting the people of Israel togither commandeth on gods behalfe on this wise In the day the Lord spake vnto you out of the mids of the fier in
quick with them Tell me Will ye needes be vnder the Lawe Are ye wilfull Doe you knowe what ye doe Doe you consider do you see the ways you take A wise mans eie is in his head Haue ye not read nor doe yee not heare what is written in the Law Lay your hand vpon your hartes and your harts vpon Gods Law and speake aduisedly and say sincerely Tell me will yee be vnder the Law Let vs reason a little 22 For it is written that Abraham had two sonnes one by a seruant and one by a free woman 23 But hee was borne of the seruant was borne after the flesh and he which was of the free woman was borne by promise 24 By the which things an other thing is meant For these mothers are the two Testaments the one which is Agar of mount Sina which gendreth vnto bondage 25 For Agar of Sina is a inountaine in Arabia and it answereth to Ierusalem which nowe is and she is in bondage with her children 26 But Hierusalem which is aboue is free which is the mother of vs all Why the booke of Genesis is comprehended in the Law You will needes be vnder the Law wel It is written in the law that Abraham had two sons c. But wher is that written in the law By the law here is meant the booke of Genesis But why goeth that book vnder the name of the law There are many reasons why 1. It was written by Moses by whom the Law was conueied vnto men who was but a minister of the Law and of things annexed thereunto 2. Then in the book of Genesis expresly the Lawe of circumcision is enacted Thirdly by sundry ceremonious rites and typicall shadowes the people of God are in that booke trained and legally custructed as namely and in speciall by the story of Abraham and his family Viz. by his two wiues Sara and Agar and by his two sonnes Isaak and Ismael In these stories euery thing is litterally true yet withall figuratiuely is exēplified the liberty of the Ghospell and the bondage of the Lawe the condicion of the Iewes and the stare of Christians The mothers of Abrahams children were diuers and therefore the one was free and the other bond The manner of their birth was different and therefore accordingly the one was after the flesh the other by promise the one by nature the other by special grace Ismael was naturally borne of yong Agar And Isaack aboue the course of nature was borne of Sara euen supernaturally and miraculously By these matters are mystically implyed the two Testaments and the one is Isaack the other is Ismaell The one is Agar the other is Sara Is for is signified Where note as we go that the word is is taken for is signified And so is it lightly euer in sacramentall and mysticall matters By the free and bond Mothers and children are signified and sette forth either freedome or bendage And you must obserue by the ciuil Law touching liberty or bondage that it is otherwise than by the common Lawe of our nation By the ciuill Law it is as it is in these exampls Partus sequetur ventrem The Childe followeth the condicion of the Mother If the Mother be free so is the fruite of her wombe If the Mother be bord so are hir Children also And bondage and freedom are resembled in these Mothers and therefore also in their children Now as if the Apostle should say Tell mee Compare these cases and tell me wil ye be Agarenes Of whether Testament will ye be Wil ye be bond Will yee be natural Will yee be fleshly And wil ye be wilful Ciuil libertie is of an inestimable price much more spirituall In ciuil respects what case more heauy than thraldom What thing more precious than liberty What Wil ye but the rope about your owne necks Wil you like County Egmon in the Low countries make your selues the bridge to bring in a proud lord that shal cut your throats or make yee slaues Are ye so deuoted to your owne harm This is euen to loth liberty and to long to bee in Aegypt and in the house of boundage Doth any wise man but desire to be a childe in his swathes when he is once come to perfect age Or would the iourny-man be a prentise againe Wisheth the Graduat that hee were in his A. B. C. Would the deliuered person returne to his prison Shall the free-man thirst after his old bondage Shal Saraes children be so much as nursed of Agar Tell me shal these similitudes be verified amongst you This similitude of Sara and Agar our Apostle prosecuteth with an other also of mount Sinay Ierusalem The Law was giuen in Sinay and receaued in Ierusalem Sinay is in Arabia far from Ierusalem and Sion which God loued Agar is Sinay Is marke againe that phrase Agar which kept such a stur in Abrahams house is by signification Sinay where the Lawe was giuen in wind thunder lightnings and in much terror But Ierusalem is the Church of God which could tell how to expound the Law of God in Christ and howe to vse for a time the ceremonies not euerlastingly to enhamber themselues with them beeing once deliuered from them by the comming of our Sauior But were not these false Apostles euen from Iury that abused these Galathians glorying in the name title of Moses and of the Lawe And did not Ierusalem hir-selfe play Agars Sinaies part pretending the Law and refusing Christ True and therefore the Apostle distinguisheth and sheweth that there are two Ierusalems the one which then was and was * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 answerable vnto Agar and to Sinay the other is from aboue the mother of vs all At the first the former * Hierusalem diuersly taken Ierusalem of these two was as the second And many excellent things are spoken of her but how was shee changed from hirselfe She was not she that once she was euen the epitome pattern and glory of Gods Church but now hir wine is turned into water hir siluer into drosse hir Temple into a den of theeues hir City into a lodge of murtherers hirselfe of a mother is become a step-mother Ierusalem is translated as it were into Arabia or Sinay out of Arabia is brought into the land of Palestine made the very metropolitane City of al Iudea And Agar there hath gotten the vpper-hand of hir Mistresse Wherefore this olde Ierusalem is not any longer the Ierusalem of God or the naturall mother of his people The other Ierusalem is described 1. To be from aboue 2. To be free 3. And so be a mother indeede the mother of vs al. That sayeng of Cyprian is in euery mans mouth that he who hath not the Church for his mother cannot haue God to be his father It is a good sentence For he that is not a childe of the church is not the child of God The whole church
and the spirite against the fleshe and these are contrary the one to the other so that ye cannot doe the same things that ye would 18 And if ye bee led by the spirit ye are not vnder the Law The Galathians as they were to recognize the state wherein they were placed and the condition whereunto they were called and therein to liue die to stand to that so yet because licentious men may soon abuse the liberty of the gospel Paul deliuereth foorth a caueat and maketh as it were a circle least men take an exorbitant and a wandering course in the waies of their saluation Grace hath superabounded but sinne may not therefore abound Abraham and Abrahams race is iustified and sette at liberty by faith by the promise in the seede through fauour and grace from our sinnes as likewise also from the olde ceremonies shall wee therefore ad sinne to sinne and liue as we list and lust after the flesh and offend euery weake one being called to lead a life after the spirit and that in perfect loue and brotherly charity Phy for shame The nature of man is prone to superstition and bent to ceremonies and ready to take any other way to Heauen than God himselfe prescribeth Of old Spiridion bishop of Cypris Sozo lib. 1. c. 11. a man most renouned known by fame wheÌ„ in a fasting time a stranger came to him coÌ„sidering circumstances he willed his daughter for he was maried to dres such prouision as he had to wit a peece of bacon when it was ready himselfe did eate and bad his ghest doe the like and take part the straunger refused so to do because he was a Christian nay saieth Spiridion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by so much the rather thou shouldest not refuse All things are cleane to the cleane The Scriptures are plaine And I ad God is not the god of meats he careth not for fishers more than for butchers for salt fish more than for powdred beefe for meates too or fro Touch not tast not were Iewish seruices wee are free as Spiridion said euen because we are Christians and so are wee free from the fleshely grosser yoke of the whole Law euen because we are Christians but yet not to liue after the flesh without the rules of the Law and beside the orders of charitable and duetiful consideration A Christian is most free and most bound In two woordes I may seeme to speake contraries but mark what I say yea 1. A Christian is the only freeman 2. Againe a Christian is as much bound though not seruilely bound as anie man els 1 Concerning the curse of the Lawe the degrees and wilfulnes of sinning the slauery of sathan the feare of death the thrall of ceremonies old or new and the bond of damnation a christian man is a free-man 2 On the otherside not onely to serue God whose seruice is perfect freedome but also to serue one another a Christian is most bound of al men Which kind of seruice is no slauery but a willing seruice and dewty and not a compelled doing and seruitude because al is and should bee in a louely performance labored and contended vnto To induce men hereunto the reasons are very forcible 1. The commaundement to loue 2. The excellency of loue 3. The inconuenience in not louing 1 If God command what seeke we farder Ego Dominus I am the Lorde is the conclusion which God euer maketh either in his prohibitions or precents and Hely taught Samuel to say that which we al must say Speake on Lord thy seruant heareth and by hearing is meant obedience in hearing Loue and Charitie 2 The excellency of loue appeareth herein that loue God and loue man also loue God and man and the perfection of the Law could require no more Of so large a compasse is loue and of so excellent a quality But yet the Apostle doth not dispute nowe whether a man can loue in the highest degree but what hee must endeuour to doe being freed from his imperfection and wanting the perfectnesse which is required If we could loue in that measure we ought in that sort we should and in what manner the Law commandeth then might we fulfill the Lawe no doubt But we haue a discharge from that perfection for we are not vnder the Law but yet not without release from contending to perfection for thereunto the spirit leadeth and louingly conductâ—…h vs al along By the spirite is meant the first fruites of the holy Ghost the effects of grace and power of christ working in christians which because some relickes of the old man remaine in vs which the Apostle calleth the fleshe alas this flesh lusteth against the spirit so that we cannot doe what wee would and therefore not what we should For many times we wish to doe lesse than we ought and yet let vs euer endeuour to doe the most Herein the onely way is to go the wayes of loue and charity For loue thinketh nothing harde though it be neuer so hard In louing as the heauens are placed aboue the earth so the God of heauen is to be beloued aboue al his creatures And yet loke what loue we duly and orderly shew to our neighbour hee accepteth as doone to himselfe so that in him and for his sake wee performe it throughly as vsually wee would to our own selues Man hath a natural * Selfe-Loue forbidden philauty and selfe-loue but God requireth not the euil kinde of loue whereby alwaies and especially in the last daies men shal be louers of themselues but the high degree of hartines in louing others euen as our selues the Law would haue Eate not thy bread alone by thy selfe breake it to the poore Break it with discretion but breake it Iudas the traitors voice was what will yee giue me Cain asked am I the keeper of my brother And why not the keeper But God saue euery innocent Abel from such keepers Yet indeede no man hath greater charity than to giue his life for his brethren I deny not the greatnes Magis aut minus non variant speciem greatnes or litlenes doth not alter the question it is charity to loue and it is the nature of true charity to lay downe our liues for the good of our neighbours euen as Christ Iesus did all that hee did not for himselfe whether in his birth Nobis natus hee was borne for vs or in his life nobis datus he was giuen to vs or at his departure Expedit vobis it was expedient for you that hee should ascend All the actions of our Sauior were commodious and profitable for vs not behoouefull for himselfe Let no man seek his own but the wealth of others saith the Apostle Loue loueth our neighbours all yea and aboue our selues I need not resolue you who is your neighbor The Samaritane in Saint Luke Luc. 10. in compassion and true loue spareth neither his wine nor his oyle nor his
fault let him be restored in the spirite of lenity and with meeke discretion in a proportionable rate There is a publique restoring and there is a priuate restoring You are priuate men and yet priuate men rather looke into publique orders than into their priuate owne doings And in deed as he said nos quoque eruditos oculos habemus you see somewhat and you say as much as you see The execution of the Law is the life of the Law There is order taken for commuting of penance and the open restoring of the penitent But I grant lawes without execution are no lawes Quid leges sine moribus Vanae proficiunt There is no profite by such lawes nay they are lawlesse and as if they were no lawes at al. And therefore a latter law comming after with full meaning to put in execution the former law is said to reuiue such a law therby inferring plainly that the law wanteth life and is deade when it lacketh execution In the most honourable audience of the high court of Parliament they were the words of wise and right worthy Sir Nicolas Bacon the Lord Keeper whose memorie is as the memory of Iosias very sweete in euery mans mouth his wordes were that the best instruments and sharpest weeding tooles did the garden no good though they were prepared and if they were laid vp in the store house and not put to vse and so forth to the same purpose much But I am beside my Text pardon me in one word your selues haue made you haue lawes and yet notwithstanding as if you had none you who can find fault with others why doe you not execute your owne lawes and mulctes appointed for the restoring of greater repaire to the hearing of the holy word of the Lord Wil you see men fall from god and fal to vice and profanenesse euen the Lecture time and will ye not restore these members to their old order If you were spirituall no doubt these things would be better ordered For shame looke to it The ground of the Apostles exhortation for the maner of restoring is because they be spiritual and for that the Lawe of Christ requireth that men deale with men as meekely and louely as they may wherein I obserue two notes 1. The cause of their standing who stood when others fel 2. Then the vrgent duety to endeuor to raise vp them who are fallen 1 The cause why wee stand is not in the strength of our selues ye that are spiritual it commeth from Gods spirit verse 3. If any man seem to himselfe to bee but somewhat hee is deceaued The spirit is ready but the flesh is weak and al the readines we haue to stand to it in persecution to persist in al temptations either outwardly assalting or inwardly molesting is from the spirit of God because we are spiritual The Popish partition betweene spiritual and temporal as if amongest them and their orders euery doore keeper Church sweeper bel ringer or taper bearer c. were necessarily spiritual men and all men else were not spirituall is a toy and wel confuted of * D. Bilson of Christian subiection part 1. Pag. 244. late Paul writing generally to the Galathians calleth them by that which they should bee spirituall in the cariage of themselues mutually one to another Wherein my note is to that end wee looke vpward to the spirit of Gods assistaunce and to his powerfull hand that holdeth vs vp that are ready to fal There were 7000. that did not adore Baal and not so much as bow their knees to the Idoll but this came not of themselues but they were kept vp by God The candlesticks in the Reuelation are held vp by no other hād but by the hand of Christ Wherfore as it is in the song of Anna it is God that ruleth the woorlde it is the Lorde who guideth and directeth the feet of his Saints it is his woorde that teacheth and his spirite that conducteth his chosen seruants The Lawe of Christ 2 The vrgentnes is also thereby enforced of a good duty toward the repairing of a sinner that the Law of Christ prouoketh vs thereunto The Law of Moses is full of feare and terror but the Law of Christ is ful of loue and as the body is a perfect body that is sustained with meate and drinke inwardly and kept warme externally with clothes so the faithfull man is a right Christian that feeleth within the food of life the consolation of the spirit and the comfort of Christ and in the exercise of good works and brotherly kindnes as it were thorough clothes to warme and to foster his good actions and all this after the commandement law and ensample of our Sauiour who did al that he did for others and nothing for himselfe euen as the sheepe both in fell and flesh is for his owner and not for himselfe Wherefore brethren let vs suffer one with an other euen for his sake that suffered for vs al. Let vs beare one an others burden for his sake who vpō the crosse bore al our burdēs It is the law of christ that it shold so not thereby that we become sauiors of our selues but because he hath saued vs already and therefore may make a Lawe for his saued which most willingly they must walke in He that considereth wel his owne faults will the better beare will the imperfection of other men The hye-way thereunto is if a man can descend into him-selfe if that his considerations be like Solomons windows Skued to giue light rather into the house thā that a mā may stand at the windowe to loke abroad and if he iudge himselfe rather than others and proue himselfe and know say that if such or such a one be a sinner in such or such a case by infirmity well euen I either haue bin or am perchance and certainly by nature am and therefore may be if now I am not as great an offender as that my brother and therefore I must and wil doe for him as I would wish to be done vnto my selfe seeking to restore him as wel as I can and that with al lenity For there is no insulting vppon or vpbraiding of one another man in a fault The mariners of Tharsis fell to casting of lottes to know who was the sinner but that God had a purpose therein the lots might haue fallen rather vpon any of the mariners than vpon Ionas In Paradise there were but two and they two being both faulty began to post off their sinne the one to the other but it went not by that euerie man shal beare his owne burden And a quiet conscience is a continuall feast And that conscience which is blowen vp in pride and goeth for a time merrily like the wind-mill with the gale of vaine praise or selfeliking or that conscience that can disgest yron like the Estrige that is al his own bad doings and yet square it out and compare it with