cannot know him And this is the particular I am now to speak to The way by which the Spirit of God teaches us in all the ways and secrets of God is Love and Holinesse Secreta Dei Deo nostro filiis domus ejus Gods secrets are to himself and the sons of his House saith the Jewish Proverb Love is the great instrument of Divine knowledge that is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the height of all that is to be taught or learned Love is Obedience and we learn his words best when we practise them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Aristotle those things which they that learn ought to practise even while they practise will best learn Quisquis non venit profectò nec didicit Ita enim Dominus docet per Spiritus gratiam ut quod quisque didicerit non tantum cognoscendo videat sed etiam volendo appetat agendo perficiat St. Austin De gratia Christi lib. 1. c. 14. Unlesse we come to Christ we shall never learn for so our Blessed Lord teaches us by the grace of his Spirit that what any one learns he not only sees it by knowledge but desires it by choice and perfects it by practice 4. When this is reduced to practice and experience we find not only in things of practice but even in deepest mysteries not only the choicest and most eminent Saints but even every good man can best tell what is true and best reprove an error He that goes about to speak of and to understand the mysterious Trinity and does it by words and names of mans invention or by such which signifie contingently if he reckons this mystery by the Mythology of Numbers by the Cabala of Letters by the distinctions of the School and by the weak inventions of disputing people if he only talks of Essences and existencies Hypostases and personalities distinctions without difference and priority in Coequalities and unity in Pluralities and of superior Praedicates of no larger extent then the inferior Subjects he may amuse himself and find his understanding will be like St. Peters upon the Mount of Tabor at the Transfiguration he may build three Tabernacles in his head and talk something but he knows not what But the good man that feels the power of the Father and he to whom the Son is become Wisdom Righteousnesse Sanctification and Redemption he in whose heart the love of the Spirit of God is spred to whom God hath communicated the Holy Ghost the Comforter this man though he understands nothing of that which is unintelligible yet he only understands the mysteriousnesse of the Holy Trinity No man can be convinced well and wisely of the Article of the Holy Blessed and Vndivided Trinity but he that feels the mightiness of the Father begetting him to a new life the wisdom of the Son building him up in a most holy Faith and the love of the Spirit of God making him to become like unto God He that hath passed from his Childhood in Grace under the spiritual generation of the Father and is gone forward to be a young man in Christ strong and vigorous in holy actions and holy undertakings and from thence is become an old Disciple and strong and grown old in Religion and the conversation of the Spirit this man best understands the secret and undiscernable oeconomy he feels this unintelligible Mystery and sees with his heart what his tongue can never express and his Metaphysicks can never prove In these cases Faith and Love are the best Knowledg and Jesus Christ is best known by the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and if the Kingdom of God be in us then we know God and are known of him and when we communicate of the Spirit of God when we pray for him and have received him and entertained him and dwelt with him and warmed our selves by his holy fires then we know him too But there is no other satisfactory knowledge of the Blessed Trinity but this And therefore whatever thing is spoken of God Metaphysically there is no knowing of God Theologically and as he ought to be known but by the measures of Holiness and the proper light of the Spirit of God But in this case Experience is the best Learning and Christianity is the best Institution and the Spirit of God is the best Teacher and Holiness is the greatest Wisdom and he that sins most is the most Ignorant and the humble and obedient man is the best Scholar For the Spirit of God is a loving Spirit and will not enter into a polluted Soul But he that keepeth the Law getteth the understanding thereof and the perfection of the fear of the Lord is Wisdom said the wise Ben-Sirach And now give me leave to apply the Doctrine to you and so I shall dismiss you from this attention Many ways have been attempted to reconcile the differences of the Church in matters of Religion and all the Counsels of man have yet prov'd ineffective Let us now try Gods method let us betake our selves to live holily and then the Spirit of God will lead us into all Truth And indeed it matters not what Religion any man is of if he be a Villain the Opinion of his Sect as it will not save his Soul so neither will it do good to the Publick But this is a sure Rule If the holy man best understands Wisdom and Religion then by the proportions of holiness we shall best measure the Doctrines that are obtruded to the disturbance of our Peace and the dishonour of the Gospel And therefore 1. That is no good Religion whose Principles destroy any duty of Religion He that shall maintain it to be lawful to make a War for the defence of his Opinion be it what it will his Doctrine is against Godliness Any thing that is proud any thing that is peevish and scornful any thing that is uncharitable is against the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that form of sound Doctrine which the Apostle speaks of And I remember that Ammianus Marcellinus telling of George a proud and factious Minister that he was an Informer against his Brethren he says he did it oblitus professionis suae quae nil nisi justum suadet lene he forgot his Profession which teaches nothing but justice and meekness kindnesses and charity And however Bellarmine and others are pleased to take but indirect and imperfect notice of it yet Goodness is the best note of the true Church 2. It is but an ill sign of Holiness when a man is busie in troubling himself and his Superiour in little Scruples and phantastick Opinions about things not concerning the life of Religion or the pleasure of God or the excellencies of the Spirit A good man knows how to please God how to converse with him how to advance the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus to set forward Holiness and the Love of God and of his Brother and he knows also that there is no Godliness in
against sin For Zeal is like a Cancer in the Breast feed it with good flesh or it will devour the Heart rule XXXIII Strive to get the love of the Congregation but let it not degenerate into popularity Cause them to love you and revere you to love with Religion not for your compliance for the good you do them not for that you please them Get their love by doing your Duty but not by omitting or spoiling any part of it Ever remembring the severe words of our Blessed Saviour Wo be to you when all men speak well of you rule XXXIV Suffer not the common people to prattle about Religion and Questions but to speak little to be swift to hear and slow to speak that they learn to good works for necessary uses that they work with their hands that they may have wherewithal to give to them that need that they study to be quiet and learn to do their own business rule XXXV Let every Minister take care that he call upon his Charge that they order themselves so that they leave no void spaces of their time but that every part of it be filled with useful or innocent employment For where there is a space without business that space is the proper time for danger and temptation and no man is more miserable than he that knows not how to spend his time rule XXXVI Fear no mans person in the doing of your Duty wisely and according to the Laws Remembring always that a servant of God can no more be hurt by all the powers of wickedness than by the noise of a Flies wing or the chirping of a Sparrow Brethren do well for your selves do well for your selves as long as you have time you know not how soon death will come rule XXXVII Entertain no Persons into your Assemblies from other Parishes unless upon great occasion or in the destitution of a Minister or by contingency and seldom visits or with leave lest the labour of thy Brother be discouraged and thy self be thought to preach Christ out of envy and not of good will rule XXXVIII Never appeal to the judgment of the people in matters of controversie teach them obedience not arrogancy teach them to be humble not crafty For without the aid of false guides you will find some of them of themselves apt enough to be troublesome and a question put into their heads and a power of judging into their hands is a putting it to their choice whether you shall be troubled by them this week or the next for much longer you cannot escape rule XXXIX Let no Minister of a Parish introduce any Ceremony Rites or Gestures though with some seeming Piety and Devotion but what are commanded by the Church and established by Law and let these also be wisely and usefully explicated to the people that they may understand the reasons and measures of obedience but let there be no more introduc'd lest the people be burdened unnecessarily and tempted or divided IV. Rules and Advices concerning Preaching rule XL LEt every Minister be diligent in preaching the Word of God according to the ability that God gives him Ever remembring that to minister Gods Word unto the People is the one half of his great Office and Employment rule XLI Let every Minister be careful that what he delivers be indeed the Word of God that his Sermon be answerable to the Text for this is Gods Word the other ought to be according to it that although in it self it be but the word of Man yet by the purpose truth and signification of it it may in a secondary sense be the Word of God rule XLII Do not spend your Sermons in general and indefinite things as in Exhortations to the people to get Christ to be united to Christ and things of the like unlimited signification but tell them in every duty what are the measures what circumstances what instruments and what is the particular minute meaning of every general Advice For Generals not explicated do but fill the peoples heads with empty notions and their mouths with perpetual unintelligible talk but their hearts remain empty and themselves are not edified rule XLIII Let not the humours and inclinations of the people be the measures of your Doctrines but let your Doctrines be the measure of their perswasions Let them know from you what they ought to do but if you learn from them what you ought to teach you will give but a very ill account at the day of Judgment of the souls committed to you He that receives from the people what he shall teach them is like a Nurse that asks of her Child what Physick she shall give him rule XLIV Every Minister in reproofs of sin and sinners ought to concern himself in the faults of them that are present but not of the absent nor in reproof of the times for this can serve no end but of Faction and Sedition publick Murmur and private Discontent besides this it does nothing but amuse the people in the faults of others teaching them to revile their Betters and neglect the dangers of their own souls rule XLV As it looks like flattery and design to preach nothing before Magistrates but the duty of their people and their own eminency so it is the beginning of Mutiny to preach to the people the duty of their Superiours and Supreme it can neither come from a good Principle nor tend to a good End Every Minister ought to preach to his Parish and urge their duty S. John the Baptist told the Souldiers what the Souldiers should do but troubled not their heads with what was the duty of the Scribes and Pharisees rule XLVI In the reproof of sins be as particular as you please and spare no mans sin but meddle with no mans person neither name any man nor signifie him neither reproach him nor make him to be suspected he that doth otherwise makes his Sermon to be a Libel and the Ministry of Repentance an instrument of Revenge and so doing he shall exasperate the man but never amend the sinner rule XLVII Let the business of your Sermons be to preach holy Life Obedience Peace Love among neighbours hearty love to live as the old Christians did and the new should to do hurt to no man to do good to every man For in these things the honour of God consists and the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus rule XLVIII Press those Graces most that do most good and make the least noise such as giving privately and forgiving publickly and prescribe the grace of Charity by all the measures of it which are given by the Apostle 1 Cor. 13. For this grace is not finished by good words nor yet by good works but it is a great building and many materials go to the structure of it It is worth your study for it is the fulfilling of the Commandments rule XLIX Because it is impossible that Charity should live unless the lust of the tongue be mortified let
ΔΕΚΑΣ ΕΜΒΟΛΙΜΑΙΟΣ A SUPPLEMENT TO THE ΕÎΙΑΥΤΟΣ 〈…〉 Sermons for 〈…〉 Explaining the Nature of Faith and Obedience in relation to God and the Ecclesiastical and Secular Powers respectively All that have been Preached and Published since the Restauration By the Right Reverend Father in God JEREMY Lord Bishop of Down and Connor WITH His Advice to the Clergy of his Diocess LONDON Printed for R. Royston Book-seller to the Kings Most Excellent Majesty 1667. NON MAGNA 〈◊〉 VIMVR SED VIVIMVS NIHIL OPINIONES GRATIA OMNIA CONSCENâ—â—â— FACIAM The Titles and Texts of the several Sermons SERM. I. The Righteousness Evangelical Matth. 5. 20. For I say unto you that except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees ye shall in no wise enter into the Kingdom of Heaven SERM. II. The Christians Conquest over the Body of Sin Rom. 7. 19. For the good that I would I do not but the evil which I would not that I do SERM. III. Faith working by Love James 2. 4. You see then how that by works a man is justified and not by faith alone SERM. IV. Preached at an Episcopal Consecration Luke 12. 42. And the Lord said Who then is that faithful and wise steward whom his Lord shall make ruler over his houshold to give them their portion of meat in due season verse 43 Blessed is that servant whom his Lord when he cometh shall find so doing SERM. V. Preached at the Opening the Parliament of Ireland 1. Sam. 15. 22. Behold to obey is better then sacrifice and to hearken then the fat of rams verse 23 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry SERM. VI. Via Intelligentiae John 7. 17. If any man will do his will he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God or whether I speak of my self SERM. VII Preached at the Funeral of the L. Primate of Ireland Cor. 15. 23. But every man in his own order Christ the first fruits and after they that are Christ's at his coming SERM. VIII Countess of Carberies Funeral Sermon 2 Sam. 14. 14. For we must needs dye and are as water spilt on the ground which cannot be gathered up again neither doth God respect any person yet doth he devise means that his banished be not expelled from him SERM. IX X. The Ministers Duty in Life and Doctrine In 2 Sermons Tit. 2. 7. In all things shewing thy self a pattern of good works In Doctrine shewing uncorruptness gravity sincerity verse 8 Sound Speech that cannot be condemned that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed having no evil thing to say of you Rules and Advices to the Clergy of the Diocess of Down and Connor IMPRIMATUR Tho. Tomkyns RR imo in Christo Patri ac Domino D no Gilberto Divinâ Providentiâ Archi-Episcopo Cantuariensi à Sacris Domesticis THE Righteousness Evangelical DESCRIBD THE CHRISTIANS CONQUEST Over the Body of Sin FIDES FORMATA OR FAITH working by LOVE IN THREE SERMONS PREACHED AT CHRIST CHURCH DVBLIN By the Right Reverend Father in God JEREMY Lord Bishop of Down and Connor The third Edition LONDON Printed for R. Royston Book-seller to the Kings Most Excellent Majesty 1667. TO THE MOST NOBLE AND VERTUOUS PRINCESSE THE LADY Dutchess of Ormond HER GRACE Madam I Present your Grace here with a Testimony of my Obedience and of your own Zeal for the good of Souls You were in your great Charity not only pleased to pardon the weakness of this Discourse but to hope it might serve as a memorial to those that need it of the great necessity of living Vertuously and by the measures of Christianity Madam you are too great and too good to have any ambition for the things of this World but I cannot but observe that in your designs for the other World you by your Charity and Zeal adopt your self into the portion of those Ecclesiasticks who humbly hope and truly labour for the reward that is promised to those wise persons who convert souls if our Prayers and your Desires that every one should be profited in their eternal concerns cast in a Symbol towards this great work and will give you a title to that great reward But Madam when I received your Commands for dispersing some Copies of this Sermon I perceived it was too little to be presented to your Eminence and if it were accompanied with something else of the like nature it might with more profit advance that end which your Grace so piously designed and therefore I have taken this opportunity to satisfie the desire of some very Honourable and very Reverend Personages who required that the two following Sermons should also be made fit for the use of those who hoped to receive profit by them I humbly lay them all at your Graces Feet begging of God that even as many may receive advantages by the perusing of them as either your Grace will desire or he that preached them did intend And if your Grace will accept of this first Testimony of my concurrence with all the World that know you in paying those great regards which your Piety so highly merits I will endeavour hereafter in some greater instance to pursue the intentions of Your zeal of souls and by such a service endeavour to do more benefit to others and by it as by that which is most acceptable to your Grace endear the Obedience and Services of Madam Your Graces most Humble and Obedient Servant Jer. Down THE Righteousness Evangelical DESCRIB'D SERMON I. MATTH V. 20. For I say unto you that except your Righteousness exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees ye shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven REwards and Punishments are the best Sanction of Laws and although the Guardians of Laws strike somtimes with the softest part of the hand in their Executions of sad Sentences yet in the Sanction they make no abatements but so proportion the Duty to the Reward and the Punishment to the Crime that by these we can best tell what Value the Law-giver puts upon the Obedience Joshuah put a great rate upon the taking of Kiriath-Sepher when the Reward of the Service was his Daughter and a Dower But when the Young men ventur'd to fetch David the waters of Bethlehem they had nothing but the praise of their Boldness because their Service was no more than the satisfaction of a Curiosity But as Law-givers by their Rewards declare the Value of the Obedience so do Subjects also by the grandeur of what they expect set a value on the Law and the Law-giver and do their Services accordingly And therefore the Law of Moses whose endearment was nothing but temporal goods and transient evils could never make the comers thereunto perfect but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Superinduction of a better Hope hath endeared a more perfect Obedience When Christ brought Life and Immortality to light through the Gospel and hath promised to
thing it is a holy Conversation a God-like life an Universal Obedience a keeping nothing back from God a Sanctification of the whole man and keeps not the Body only but the Soul and the Spirit unblamable to the coming of the Lord Jesus 5. And lastly The Pharisaical Righteousness was the product of fear and therefore what they must needs do that they would do but no more But the Righteousness Evangelical is produced by Love it is managed by Choice and cherished by Delight and fair Experiences Christians are a willing people homines bonae voluntatis men of good will arbores Domini So they are mystically represented in Scripture the Trees of the Lord are full of Sap among the Hebrews the Trees of the Lord did signifie such trees as grew of themselves and all that are of Gods planting are such as have a vital principal within and grow without constraint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one said it of Christians they obey the Laws and by the goodness of their lives exceed the Laws and certain it is no man hath the Righteousness Evangelical if he resolves alwayes to take all his liberty in every thing that is meerly lawful or if he purpose to do no more than he must needs that is no more than he is just commanded For the Reasons are plain 1. The Christian that resolves to do every thing that is Lawful will many times run into danger and inconvenience because the utmost extremity of Lawful is so near to that which is Unlawful that he will often pass into Unlawful undiscernably Vertues and Vices have not in all their instances a great Land-mark set between them like warlike Nations separate by prodigious Walls vast Seas and portentous Hills but they are oftentimes like the bounds of a Parish men are fain to cut a cross upon the turf and make little marks and annual perambulations for memorials so it is in Lawful and Unlawful by a little mistake a man may be greatly ruined He that drinks till his tongue is full as a spunge and his speech a little stammering and tripping hasty and disorderly though he be not gone as far as drunkenness yet he is gone beyond the severity of a Christian and when he is just past into Unlawful if he disputes too curiously he will certainly deceive himself for want of a wiser curiosity But 2. He that will do all that he thinks he may lawfully had need have an infallible guide always by him who should without error be able to answer all cases of Conscience which will happen every day in a life so careless and insecure for if he should be mistaken his error is his crime and not his excuse A man in this case had need be very sure of his Proposition which because he cannot be in charity to himself he will quickly find that he is bound to abstain from all things that are uncertainly good and from all disputable evils from things which although they may be in themselves lawful yet accidentally and that from a thousand causes may become unlawful Pavidus quippe formidolosus est Christianus saith Salvian atque in tantum peccare metuens ut interdum non timenda formidet A Christian is afraid of every little thing and he sometimes greatly fea◠that he hath sinned even then when he hath no other reason to be afraid but because he would not do so for all the world 3. He that resolves to use all his liberty cannot be innocent so long as there are in the world so many bold temptations and presumptuous actions so many scandals and so much ignorance in the things of God so many things that are suspicious and so many things that are of evil report so many ill customs and disguises in the world with which if we resolve to comply in all that is supposed lawful a man may be in the regions of death before he perceive his head to ake and instead of a staff in his hand may have a splinter in his Elbow 4. Besides all this he that thus stands on his terms with God and so carefully husbands his duty and thinks to make so good a market of obedience that he will quit nothing which he thinks he may lawfully keep shall never be exemplar in his life and shall never grow in grace and therefore shall never enter into glory He therefore that will be righteous by the measures Evangelical must consider not only what is lawful but what is expedient not only what is barely safe but what is worthy that which may secure and that which may do advantage to that concern that is the greatest in the world And 2. The case is very like with them that resolve to do no more good than is commanded them For 1. It is infinitely unprofitable as to our eternal interest because no man does do all that is commanded at all times and therefore he that will not sometimes do more besides that he hath no love no zeal of duty no holy fires in his soul besides this I say he can never make any amends towards the reparation of his Conscience Let him that stole steal no more that 's well but that 's not well enough for he must if he can make restitution of what he stole or he shall never be pardoned and so it is in all our entercourse with God To do what is commanded is the duty of the present we are tyed to this in every present in every period of our lives but therefore if we never do any more than just the present duty who shall supply the dificiencies and fill up the gaps and redeem what is past This is a material consideration in the Righteousness Evangelical But then 2. We must know that in keeping of Gods Commandments every degree of internal duty is under the Commandments and therefore whatever we do we must do it is as well as we can Now he that does his Duty with the biggest affection he can will also do all that he can and he can never know that he hath done what is commanded unless he does all that is in his power For God hath put no limit but love and possibility and therefore whoever says Hither will I go and no further This I will do and no more Thus much will I serve God but that shall be all he hath the affections of a Slave and the religion of a Pharisee the craft of a Merchant and the falseness of a Broker but he hath not the proper measures of the Righteousness Evangelical But so it happens in the mud and slime of the River Borborus when the eye of the Sun hath long dwelt upon it and produces Frogs and Mice which begin to move a little under a thin cover of its own parental matter and if they can get loose to live half a life that is all but the hinder parts which are not formed before the setting of the Sun stick fast in their beds of mud and the little
eminency and singularity Church-men that 's your appellative all are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spiritual men all have received the Spirit and all walk in the Spirit and ye are all sealed by the Spirit unto the day of Redemption and yet there is a spirituality peculiar to the Clergy If any man be overtaken in a fault ye which are spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of meekness you who are spiritual by office and designation of a spiritual calling and spiritual employment you who have the Spirit of the Lord Jesus and minister the Spirit of God you are more eminently spiritual you have the Spirit in graces and in powers in sanctification and abilities in Office and in Person the Vnction from above hath descended upon your heads and upon your hearts you are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by way of eminency and praelation spiritual men All the people of God were holy Corah and his company were in the right so far but yet Moses and Aaron were more holy and stood neerer to God All the people are Prophets It is now more than Moses wish for the Spirit of Christ hath made them so If any man prayeth or prophesieth with his head covered or if any woman prophesieth with her head uncovered they are dishonoured but either man or woman may do that work in time and place for in the latter days I will pour out of my Spirit and your daughters shall prophesie and yet God hath appointed in his Church Prophets above these to whose Spirit all the other Prophets are subject and as God said to Aaron and Miriam concerning Moses to you I am known in a dream or a vision but to Moses I speak face to face so it is in the Church God gives of his Spirit to all men but you he hath made the Ministers of his Spirit Nay the people have their portion of the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven so said S. Paul To whom ye forgive any thing to him I forgive also and to the whole Church of Corinth he gave a Commission in the Name of Christ and by his Spirit to deliver the incestuous person unto Satan and when the primitive Penitents stood in their penitential stations they did Chairs Dei adgeniculari toti populo legationem orationis suae commendare and yet the Keys were not only promised but given to the Apostles to be used then and transmitted to all Generations of the Church and we are Ministers of Christ and Stewards of the manifold Mysteries of God and to us is committed the word of reconciliation And thus in the Consecration of the mysterious Sacrament the people have their portion for the Bishop or the Priest blesses and the People by saying Amen to the mystick Prayer is partaker of the Power and the whole Church hath a share in the power of Spiritual Sacrifice Ye are a royal Priesthood Kings and Priests unto God that is so ye are Priests as ye are Kings but yet Kings and Priests have a glory conveyed to them of which the people partake but in minority and allegory and improper communication But you are and are to be respectively that considerable part of mankind by whom God intends to plant holiness in the World by you God means to reign in the hearts of men and g. you are to be the first in this kind and consequently the measure of all the rest To you g. I intend this and some following Discourses in order to this purpose I shall but now lay the first stone but it is the corner stone in this foundation But to you I say of the Clergy these things are spoken properly to you these Powers are conveyed really upon you God hath poured his Spirit plentifully you are the Choicest of his Choice the Elect of his Election a Church pick'd out of the Church Vessels of honour so your Masters use appointed to teach others authorised to bless in his Name you are the Ministers of Christ's Priesthood Under-labourers in the great Work of Mediation and Intercession Medii inter Deum Populum you are for the People towards God and convey Answers and Messages from God to the People These things I speak not only to magnifie your Office but to inforce and heighten your Duty you are holy by Office and Designation for your very Appointment is a Sanctification and a Consecration and g. whatever holiness God requires of the People who have some little portions in the Priesthood Evangelical he expects it of you and much greater to whom he hath conveyed so great Honours and admitted so neer unto himself and hath made to be the great Ministers of his Kingdom and his Spirit and now as Moses said to the Levitical Schismaticks Corah and his Company so I may say to you Seemeth it but a small thing unto you that the God of Israel hath separated you from the Congregation of Israel to bring you to himself to do the Service of the Tabernacle of the Lord and to stand before the Congregation to minister to them And he hath brought thee neer to him Certainly if of every one of the Christian Congregation God expects a holiness that mingles with no unclean thing if God will not suffer of them a luke-warm and an indifferent service but requires zeal of his Glory and that which St. Paul calls the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the labour of love if he will have them to be without spot or wrinkle or any such thing if he will not endure any pollution in their Flesh or Spirit if he requires that their Bodies and Souls and Spirits be kept blameless unto the coming of the Lord Jesus if he accepts of none of the people unless they have within them the conjugation of all Christian Graces if he calls on them to abound in every Grace and that in all the periods of their progression unto the ends of their lives and to the consummation and perfection of Grace if he hath made them Lights in the World and the Salt of the Earth to enlighten others by their good Example and to teach them and invite them by holy Discourses and wise Counsels and Speech seasoned with Salt what is it think ye or with what words is it possible to express what God requires of you They are to be Examples of Good life to one another but you are to be Examples even of the Examples themselves that 's your duty that 's the purpose of God and that 's the design of my Text That in all things ye shew your selves a pattern of good works in Doctrine shewing uncorruptness gravity sincerity sound speech that cannot be condemned that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed having no evil thing to say of you Here then is 1. Your Duty 2. The degrees and excellency of your Duty The Duty is double 1. Holiness of Life 2. Integrity of Doctrine Both these have their heightnings in several degrees 1. For your Life and Conversation
that they should put more affections to labour and travel and less to their pleasure and recreation and so it was with the Pharisee For as the Chaldees taught their Moraâ—â—â—y by mystick words and the Aegyptians by Hieroglyphicks and the Greeks by Fables so did God by Rites and Ceremonies external leading them by the Hand to the Purities of the Heart and by the Services of the Body to the Obedience of the Spirit which because they would not understand they thought they had done enough in the observation of the Letter 2. In moral Duties where God express'd Himself more plainly they made no Commentary of kindness but regarded the Prohibition so nakedly and divested of all Antecedents Consequents Similitudes and Proportions that if they stood clear of that hated name which was set down in Moses Tables they gave themselves liberty in many instances of the same kindred and alliance If they abstained from murder they thought it very well though they made no scruple of murdering their Brothers Fame they would not cut his throat but they would call him Fool or invent lies in secret and publish his disgrace openly they would not dash out his brains but they would be extremely and unreasonably angry with him they would not steal their brothers money but they would oppress him in crafty and cruel bargains The Commandment forbade them to commit Adultery but because Fornication was not named they made no scruple of that and being commanded to Honour their Father and their Mother they would give them good words and fair observances but because it was not named that they should maintain them in their need they thought they did well enough to pretend Corban and let their Father starve 3. The Scribes and Pharisees placed their Righteousness in Negatives they would not commit what was forbidden but they car'd but little for the included positive and the omissions of good Actions did not much trouble them they would not hurt their brother in a forbidden instance but neither would they do him good according to the intention of the Commandment It was a great innocence if they did not rob the poor then they were righteous men but they thought themselves not much concerned to acquire that god-like excellency a Philanthropy and love to all mankind Whosoever blasphem'd God was to be put to death but he that did not glorifie God as he ought they were unconcern'd for him and let him alone He that spake against Moses was to die without mercy but against the ambitious and the covetous against the proud man and the unmerciful they made no provisions Virtus est vitium fugere sapientia prima Stultitiâ caruisse They accounted themselves good not for doing good but for doing no evil that was the sum of their Theology 4. They had one thing more as bad all this They broke Moses Tables into pieces and gathering up the fragments took to themselves what part of Duty they pleased and let the rest alone For it was a Proverb amongst the Jews Qui operam dat praecepto liber est à praecepto that is If he chuses one positive Commandment for his business he may be less careful in any of the rest Indeed they said also Qui multiplicat Legem multiplicat Vitam He that multiplies the Law increaâ—â—s Life that is if he did attend to more good things it was so much the bâ—tter but the other was well enough but as for Universal Obedience that was not the measure of their righteousness for they taught that God would put our good works and bad into the balance and according to the heavier scale give a portion in the world to come so that some evil they would allow to themselves and their Disciples always provided it was less than the good they did They would devour Widows houses and make it up by long Prayers They would love their Nation and hate their Prince offer Sacrifice and curse Caesar in their heart advance Judaism and destroy Humanity Lastly St. Austin summ'd up the difference between the Pharisaical and Evangelical Righteousness in two words Brevis differentia inter Legem Evangelium timor amor They serv'd the God of their Fathers in the spirit of Fear and we worship the Father of our Lord Jesus in the Spirit of Love and by the Spirit of Adoption And as this slavish Principle of theirs was the cause of all their former Imperfections so it finally and chiefly express'd it self in these two particulars 1. They would do all that they thought they lawfully could do 2. They would do nothing but what was expresly commanded This was the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees and their Disciples the Jews which because our Blessed Saviour reproves not only as imperfect then but as criminal now calling us on to a new Righteousness the Righteousness of God to the Law of the Spirit of Life to the Kingdom of God and the proper Righteousness thereof it concerns us in the next place to look after the measures of this ever remembring that it is infinitely necessary that we should do so and men do not generally know or not consider what it is to be a Christian they understand not what the Christian Law forbiddeth or commandeth But as for this in my Text it is indeed our great measure but it is not a question of good and better but of Good and Evil Life and Death Salvation and Damnation for unless our Righteousness be weighed by new Weights we shall be found too light when God comes to weigh the Actions of all the World and unless we be more righteous than they we shall in no wise that is upon no other terms in the world enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Now concerning this we shall do very much amiss if we take our measures by the Manners and Practises of the many who call themselves Christians for there are as Nazianzen expresses it the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the old and the new Pharisees I wish it were no worse amongst us and that all Christians were indeed Righteous as they were est aliquid prodire tenus it would not be just nothing But I am sure that to bid defiance to the Laws of Christ to laugh at Religion to make a merriment at the debauchery and damnation of our Brother is a state of evil worse than that of the Scribes and Pharisees and yet even among such men how impatient would they be and how unreasonable would they think you to be if you should tell them that there is no present hopes or possibility that in this state they are in they can be saved 〈…〉 â—demur nobis esse belluli 〈…〉 Saperdae cum simus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈…〉 world is too full of Christians whose Righteousness is very little 〈…〉 their Iniquities very great and now adays a Christian is a man 〈…〉 to Church on Sundays and on the week following will do 〈…〉 things 〈◊〉 corvos sequitur
believing his Word praying for his Spirit supported with his Hope refreshed by his Promises recreated by his Comforts and wholly and in all things conformable to his Life that is the true Communion The Sacraments are not made for Sinners until they do repent they are the food of our Souls but our Souls must be alive unto God or else they cannot eat It is good to confess our sins as St. James sayes and to open our wounds to the Ministers of Religion but they absolve none but such as are are truly penitent Solemn Prayers and the Sacraments and the Assemblies of the Faithful and fasting days and acts of external worship are the solemnities and rites of Religion but the Religion of a Christian is in the Heart and Spirit And this is that by which Clemens Alexandrinus defined the Righteousness of a Christian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all the parts and faculties that make up a man must make up our Religion but the heart is Domus principalis it is the Court of the great King and he is properly served with interior graces and moral Vertues with a humble and a good mind with a bountiful heart and a willing Soul and these will command the eye and give laws to the hand and make the shoulders stoop but anima cujusque est quisque a mans soul is the man and so is his Religion and so you are bound to understand it True it is God works in us his Graces by the Sacrament but we must dispose our selves to a reception of the Divine blessing by Moral instruments The Soul is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it must work together with God and the body works together with the soul But no external action can purifie the soul because its Nature and Operations being Spiritual it can no more be changed by a Ceremony or an external Solemnity than an Angel can be caressed with sweet Meats or a a Mans belly can be filled with Musick or long Orations The sum is this No Christian does his Duty to God but he that serves him with all his heart And although it becomes us to fulfil all righteousness even the external also yet that which makes us gracious in his Eyes is not the external it is the love of the heart and the real change of the mind and obedience of the spirit that 's the first great measure of the Righteousness Evangelical 2. The Righteousness Evangelical must exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees by extension of our Obedience to things of the same signification Leges non ex verbis sed ex mente intelligendas sayes the Law There must be a Commentary of kindness in the understanding the Laws of Christ. We must understand all Gods meaning we must secure his service we must be far removed from the dangers of his displeasure And therefore our Righteousness must be the purification and the perfection of the Spirit So that it will be nothing for us not to commit Adultery unless our Eyes and Hands be chast and the desires be clean A Christian must not look upon a woman to lust after her He must hate Sin in all dimensions and in all distances and in every angle of its reception A Christian must not sin and he must not be willing to sin if he durst He must not be lustful and therefore he must not feed high nor drink deep for these make provisions for lust and amongst Christians great eatings and drinkings are acts of uncleanness as well as of intemperance and whatever ministers to sin and is the way of it partakes of its nature and its curse For it is remarkable that in good and evil the case is greatly different Mortification e. g is a duty of Christianity but there is no Law concerning the Instruments of it We are not commanded to roll our selves on thorns as St. Benedict did or to burn our flesh like St. Martinian or to tumble in Snows with St. Francis or in pools of water with St. Bernard A man may chew Aloes or ly upon the ground or wear sackcloth if he have a mind to it and if he finds it good in his circumstances and to his purposes of mortification but it may be he may do it alone by the Instrumentalities of Fear and Love and so the thing be done no special Instrument is under a command * But although the Instruments of vertue are free yet the Instruments and ministeries of vice are not Not only the sin is forbidden but all the wayes that lead to it The Instruments of vertue are of themselves indifferent that is not naturally but good only for their relation sake and in order to their end But the Instruments of vice are of themselves vitious they are part of the sin they have a share in the phantastick pleasure and they begin to estrange a mans heart from God and are directly in the prohibition For we are commanded to fly from temptation to pray against it to abstain from all appearances of evil to make a covenant with our eyes to pluck them out if there be need And if Christians do not understand the Commandments to this extension of signification they will be innocent only by the measures of humane Laws but not by the righteousness of God 3. Of the same consideration it is also that we understand Christs Commandments to extend our Duty not only to what is named and what is not named of the same nature and design but that we abstain from all such things as are like to sins * Of this nature there are many All violences of Passion Irregularities in Gaming Prodigality of our time Undecency of action doing things unworthy of our Birth or our Profession aptness to go to Law Ambitus or a fierce prosecution even of honourable employments misconstruction of the words and actions of our brother easiness to believe evil of others willingness to report the evil which we hear curiosity of Dyet peevishness toward servants indiscreet and importune standing for place and all excess in ornaments for even this little instance is directly prohibited by the Christian and Royal Law of Charity For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith S. Paul the word is a word hard to be understood we render it well enough Charity vaunteth not it self and upon this S. Basil says that an Ecclesiastick person and so every Christian in his proportion ought not to go in splendid and vain Ornaments 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every thing that is not wisely useful or proportioned to the state of the Christian but ministers only to vanity is a part of this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is a vaunting which the Charity and the Grace of a Christian does not well endure * These things are like to sins they are of a suspicious nature and not easily to be reconcil'd to the Righteousness Evangelical It is no wonder if Christianity be nice and curious it is the cleanness and the purification of the Soul and Christ intends
deceive us and turn Religion into words and Holiness into hypocrisie and the Promises of God into a snare and the Truth of God into a ly For when God made a Covenant of Faith he made also the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Law of Faith and when he admitted us to a Covenant of more mercy than was in the Covenant of works or of the Law he did not admit us to a Covenant of idleness and an incurious walking in a state of disobedience but the mercy of God leadeth us to repentance and when he gives us better promises he intends we should pay him a better obedience when he forgives us what is past he intends we should sin no more when he offers us his graces he would have us to make use of them when he causes us to distrust our selves his meaning is we should rely upon him when he enables us to do what he commands us he commands us to do all that we can And therefore this Covenant of Faith and Mercy is also a Covenant of Holiness and the grace that pardons us does also purifie us for so saith the Apostle He that hath this hope purifies himself even as God is pure And when we are so then we are justified indeed this is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Law of faith and by works in this sense that is by the works of faith by faith working by love and producing fruits worthy of amendment of ife we are justified before God And so I have done with the affirmative Proposition of my Text you see that a man is justified by works But there is more in it than this matter yet amounts to for S. James does not say we are justified by works and are not justified by faith that had been irreconcileable with S. Paul but we are so justified by works that it is not by Faith alone it is faith and works together that is it is by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the obedience of faith by the works of Faith by the Law of faith by Righteousness Evangelical by the conditions of the Gospel and the measures of Christ. I have many things to say in this particular but because I have but a little time left to say them in I will sum it all up in this Proposition That in the question of justification and salvation faith and good works are no part of a distinction but members of one entire body Faith and good works together work the righteousness of God That is that I may speak plainly justifying faith contains in it obedience and if this be made good then the two Apostles are reconciled to each other and both of them to the necessity the indispensible necessity of a good life Now that justifying and saving faith must be defined by something more than an act of understanding appears not only in this that S. Peter reckons faith as distinctly from knowledge as he does from patience or strength or brotherly kindness saying Add to your faith vertue to vertue knowledge but in this also because an error in life and whatsoever is against holiness is against faith And therefore S. Paul reckons the lawless and the disobedient murderers of Parents man-stealing and such things to be against sound Doctrines for the Doctrine of faith is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Doctrine that is according to godliness And when S. Paul prayes against ungodly men he adds this reason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for all men have not faith meaning that wicked men are Infidels and Unbelievers and particularly he affirms of him that does not provide for his own that he hath denyed the Faith Now from hence it follows that faith is godliness because all wickedness is infidelity it is an Apostacy from the faith Ille erit ille nocens qui me tibi fecerat hostem he that sins against God he is the enemy to the faith of Jesus Christ and therefore we deceive our selves if we place faith in the understanding only it is not that and it does not well there but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Apostle the Mystery of faith is kept no where it dwells no where but in a pure conscience For I consider that since all moral habits are best defined by their operation we can best understand what faith is by seeing what it does To this purpose hear S. Paul By faith Abel offered up to God a more excellent Sacrifice than Cain By faith Noah made an Ark. By faith Abraham left his Country and offered up his Son By faith Moses chose to suffer affliction and accounted the reproach of Christ greater than all the riches of Aegypt In short the children of God by faith subdued Kingdoms and wrought righteousness To work righteousness is as much the duty and work of faith as believing is So that now we may quickly make an end of this great inquiry whether a man is justified by faith or by works for he is so by both if you take it alone faith does not justifie but take it in the aggregate sense as it is used in the question of Justification by S. Paul and then faith does not only justifie but it sanctifies too and then you need to enquire no further obedience is a part of the definition of faith as much as it is of Charity This is love saith S. John that we keep his Commandments And the very same is affirmed of faith too by Bensirach He that believeth the Lord will keep his Commandments I have now done with all the Propositions expressed and implyed in the Text give me leave to make some practical Considerations and so I shall dismiss you from this Attention The rise I take from the words of S. Epiphanius speaking in praise of the Apostolical and purest Ages of the Church There was at first no distinction of Sects and Opinions in the Church she knew no difference of men but good and bad there was no separation made but what was made by piety or impiety or sayes he which is all one by fidelity and infidelity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For faith hath in it the Image of godliness engraven and infidelity hath the Character of wickedness and prevarication A man was not then esteemed a Saint for disobeying his Bishop or an Apostle nor for misunderstanding the hard sayings of S. Paul about predestination to kick against the laudable Customs of the Church was not then accounted a note of the godly party and to despise Government was but an ill mark and weak indication of being a good Christian. The Kingdom of God did not then consist in words but in power the power of godliness though now we are fallen into another method we have turned all Religion into Faith and our faith is nothing but the productions of interest or disputing it is adhering to a party and a wrangling against all the world beside and when it is asked of what Religion he is of we understand
baubles do by Children when they are deadly sick But that only is faith that makes us to love God to do his will to suffer his impositions to trust his promises to see through a cloud to overcome the World to resist the Devil to stand in the day of tryal and to be comforted in all our sorrows This is that precious faith so mainly necessary to be insisted on that by it we may be Sons of the free woman liberi à vitiis ac ritibus that the true Isaac may be in us which is Christ according to the Spirit the wisdom and power of God a Divine vigour and life whereby we are enabled with joy and cheerfulness to walk in the way of God By this you may try your faith if you please and make an end of this question Do you believe in the Lord Jesus yea or no God forbid else but if your faith be good it will abide the tryal There are but three things that make the integrity of Christian faith believing the words of God confidence in his goodness and keeping his Commandments For the first it is evident that every man pretends to it if he calls himself Christian he believes all that is in the Canon of the Scriptures and if he did not he were indeed no Christian. But now consider what think we of this Proposition All shall be damned who believe not the truth but have pleasure in unrighteousness Does not every man believe this Is it possible they can believe there is any such thing as unrighteousness in the World or any such thing as damnation and yet commit that which the Scriptures call unrighteousness and which all Laws and all good men say is so Consider how many unrighteous men there are in the world and yet how few of them think they shall be damned I know not how it comes to pass but men go upon strange principles and they have made Christianity to be a very odd Institution if it had not better measures than they are pleased to afford it There are two great roots of all evil Covetousness and Pride and they have infected the greatest parts of mankind and yet no man thinks himself to be either Covetous or Proud And therefore whatever you discourse against these sins it never hits any man but like Jonathans Arrows to David they fall short or they fly beyond Salvian complained of it in his time Hoc ad crimina nostra addimus ut cum in omnibus rei simus etiam bonos nos sanctos esse credamus This we add unto our crimes we are the vilest persons in the world and yet we think our selves to be good people and when we die make no question but we shall go to Heaven There is no cause of this but because we have not so much faith as believing comes to and yet most men will pretend not only to believe but to love Christ all this while And how do they prove this Truly they hate the memory of Judas and curse the Jews that crucified Christ and think Pilate a very miserable man and that all the Turks are damned and to be called Caiphas is a word of reproach and indeed there are many that do not much more for Christ than this comes to things to as little purpose and of as little signification But so the Jews did hate the memory of Corah as we do of Caiphas and they builded the Sepulchre of the Prophets and we also are angry at them that killed the Apostles and the Martyrs but in the mean time we neither love Christ nor his Saints for we neither obey him nor imitate them And yet we should think our selves highly injured if one should call us Infidels and haters of Christ. But I pray consider what is hating of any man but designing and doing him all the injury and spite we can Does not he hate Christ that dishonours him that makes Christs members the members of an harlot That doth not feed and clothe these members If the Jews did hate Christ when they crucified him then so does a Christian too when he crucifies him again Let us not deceive our selves a Christian may be damned as well as a Turk and Christians may with as much malice crucifie Christ as the Jews did And so does every man that sins wilfully he spills the blood of Christ making it to be spent in vain He that hateth you hateth me he that receives you receives me said Christ to his Apostles I wish the world had so much faith as to believe that and by this try whether we love Christ and believe in him or no. I shall for the tryal of our faith ask one easie question Do we believe that the story of David and Jonathan is true Have we so much faith as to think it possible that two Rivals of a Crown should love so dearly Can any man believe this and not be infinitely ashamed to see Christians almost all Christians to be irreconcileably angry and ready to pull their brothers heart out when he offers to take our Land or money from us Why do almost all men that go to Law for right hate one anothers persons Why cannot men with patience hear their titles questioned But if Christianity be so excellent a Religion why are so very many Christians so very wicked Certainly they do not so much as believe the propositions and principles of their own Religion For the body of Christians is so universally wicked that it would be a greater change to see Christians generally live according to their profession than it was at first from infidelity to see them to turn Believers The conversion from Christian to Christian from Christian in title to Christian in sincerity would be a greater miracle then it was when they were converted from Heathen and Jew to Christian. What is the matter Is not repentance from dead works reckoned by S. Paul in Heb. 6. as one of the fundamental points of Christian Religion Is it not a piece of our Catechism the first thing we are taught and is it not the last thing that we practise We had better be without Baptism than without repentance and yet both are necessary and therefore if we were not without faith we should be without neither Is not Repentance a forsaking all sin and an intire returning unto God Who can deny this And is it not plainly said in Scripture Vnless ye repent ye shall all perish But shew me the man that believes these things heartily that is shew me a true penitent he only believes the doctrines of repentance If I had time I should examine your faith by your confidence in God and by your obedience But if we fall in the meer believing it is not likely we should do better in the other But because all the promises of God are conditional and there can be no confidence in the particular without a promise or revelation it is not possible that any man that does not
Judgment when the Angels of wrath snatch their abused People into everlasting Torments For will God bless them or pardon them by whom so many Souls perish Shall they reign with Christ who evacuate the death of Christ and make it useless to dear Souls Shall they partake of Christs Glories by whom it comes to pass that there is less joy in Heaven it self even because sinners are not converted and God is not glorified and the people is not instructed and the Kingdom of God is not filled Oh no the curses of a false Prophet will fall upon them and the reward of the evil Steward will be their portion and they who destroyed the Sheep or neglected them shall have their portion with Goats for ever and ever in everlasting burnings in which it is impossible for a man to dwell Can any thing be beyond this beyond damnation Surely a man would think not And yet I remember a severe saying of S. Gregory Scire debent Prelati quod tot mortibus digni sunt quot perditionis exempla ad subditos extenderunt One damnation is not enough for an evil Shepherd but for every Soul who dies by his evil example or pernicious carelesness he deserves a new death a new damnation Let us therefore be wise and faithful walk warily and watch carefully and rule diligently and pray assiduously for God is more propense to rewards then to punishments and the good Steward that is wise and faithful in his dispensation shall be greatly blessed But how He shall be made ruler over the houshold What is that for he is so already True but he shall be much more Ex dispensatore faciet procuratorem God will treat him as Joseph was treated by his Master he was first a Steward and then a Procurator one that ruled his Goods without account and without restraint Our Ministry shall pass into Empire our Labour into Rest our Watchfulness into Fruition and our Bishoprick to a Kingdom In the mean time our Bishopricks are a great and weighty Care and in a spiritual sence our Dominion is founded in Grace and our Rule is in the hearts of the people and our Strengths are the Powers of the Holy Ghost and the Weapons of our warfare are Spiritual and the Eye of God watches over us curiously to see if we watch over our Flocks by day and by night And though the Primitive Church as the the Ecclesiastick Histories observe when they deposed a Bishop from his Office ever concealed his Crime and made no Record of it yet remember this that God does and will call us to a strict and severe account Take heed that you may never hear that fearful Sentence I was hungry and ye gave me no meat If you suffer Christs little ones to starve it will be required severely at your hands And know this that the time will quickly come in which God shall say unto thee in the words of the Prophet Where is the Flock that was given thee thy beautiful Flock What wilt thou say when he shall visit thee God of his mercy grant unto us all to be so faithful and so wise as to convert Souls and to be so blessed and so assisted that we may give an account of our Charges with joy to the glory of God to the edification and security of our Flocks and the salvation of our own Souls in that day when the great Shepherd and Bishop of our Souls shall come to Judgment even our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ To whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all Honour and Glory Love and Obedience now and for evermore Amen FINIS Thursday May 9. ORdered That the Speaker do give the Reverend Father in God the Lord Bishop of Down the Thanks of this House for his yesterdays pains and that he desire him to Print his Sermon John Keating Cler. Parl. 11 die Maii 1661. ORdered That Sir Theophilus Jones Knight Marcus Trever Esq Sir William Domvile Knight His Majesties Attorney General and Richard Kirle Esq be and are hereby appointed a Committee to return Thanks unto the Lord Bishop of Down for his Sermon Preached on Wednesday last unto the Lords Justices and Lords Spiritual and Temporal whereunto the House of Commons were invited and that they desire his Lordship from this House to cause the same to be forthwith printed and published Copia Vera. Ex. per Philip Ferneley Cler. Dom. Com. A SERMON Preached at the Opening of the PARLIAMENT OF IRELAND May 8. 1661. Before the Right Honourable the Lords Justices and the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons BY Jeremy Lord Bishop of Down and Connor Salus in multitudine consulentium LONDON Printed for R. Royston Bookseller to the Kings most Excellent Majesty 1666. To the Right Honourable The Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons of Ireland Assembled in PARLIAMENT My Lords and Gentlemen I Ought not to dispute Your Commands for the printing my Sermon of Obedience left my Sermon should be protestatio contra factum here I Know my Example would be the best Vse to this Doctrine and I am sure to find no inconveniency so great as that of Disobedience neither can I be confident that I am wise in any thing but when I obey for then I have the Wisdom of my Superior for my warrant or my excuse I remember the saying of Aurelius the Emperor Aequius est me tot talium amicorum consilium quam tot tales meam unius voluntatem sequi I could easily have pretended excuses but that day I had taught others the contrary and I would not shed that Chalice which my own hands had newly filled with Waters issuing from the Fountains of Salvation My eyes are almost grown old with seeing the horrid mischiefs which came from Rebellion and Disobedience and I would willingly now be blessed with observation of Peace and Righteousness Plenty and Religion which do already and I hope shall for ever attend upon Obedience to the best KING and the best CHVRCH in the World I see no objection against my hopes but that which ought least of all in this case to be pretended Men pretend Conscience against Obedience expresly against S. Paul's Doctrine teaching us to obey for conscience sake but to disobey for Conscience in a thing indifferent is never to be found in the Books of our Religion It is very hard when the Prince is forc'd to say to his rebellious Subject as God did to his stubborn People Quid faciam tibi I have tried all the ways I can to bring thee home and what shall I now do unto thee The Subject should rather say Quid me vis facere What will thou have me to do This Question is the best end of Disputations Corrumpitur atque dissolvitur Imperantis officium si quis ad id quod facere jussus est non obsequio debito sed consilio non considerato respondeat said one in A. Gellius When a Subject is commanded to obey and he
therefore tell what to advise in this particular but that every Spiritual Guide should consider who are tender Consciences and who are weak Brethren and use all the ways of Piety and Prudence to instruct and to inform them that they may increase in Knowledg and Spiritual Vnderstanding But they that will be always learning and never come to the knowledge of the Truth they that will be Children of a hundred years old and never come to years of Discretion they are very unfit to guide others and to be Curates of Souls but they are most unfit to reprove the Laws and speak against the Wisdom of a Nation when it is confessed that they are so weak that they understand not the fundamental Liberty which Christ hath purchas'd for them but are servants to a Scruple and affrighted at a Circumstance and in bondage under an Indifferent Thing and so much Idolaters of their Sect or Opinion as to prefer it before all their own nobler Interests and the Charity of their Brother and the Peace of a whole Church and Nation To You my Lords and Gentlemen I hope I may say as Marcus Curius said to a stubborn young man Non opus Vos habere cive qui parere nesciret the Kingdom hath no need of those that know not how to obey But as for them who have weak and tender Consciences they are in the state of Childhood and minority but then you know that a Child is never happy by having his own humour if you chuse for him and make him to use it he hath but one thing to do but if you put him to please himself he is troubled with every thing and satisfied with nothing We find that all Christian Churches kept this Rule They kept themselves and others close to the Rule of Faith and peaceably suffered one another to differ in Ceremonies but suffered no difference amongst their own they gave Liberty to other Churches and gave Laws and no Liberty to their own Subjects And at this day the Churches of Geneva France Switzerland Germany Low-Countries tye all their people to their own Laws but tye up no mans Conscience if he be not perswaded as they are let him charitably dissent and leave that Government and adhere to his own Communion If you be not of their mind they will be served by them that are they will not trouble your Conscience and you shall not disturb their Government But when men think they cannot enjoy their Conscience unless you give them good Livings and if you prefer them not you afflict their Consciences they do but too evidently declare that it is not their Consciences but their Profits they would have secured Now to these I have only this to say That their Conscience is to be enjoyed by the Measures of Gods Word but the Rule for their Estates is the Laws of the Kingdom and I shew you yet a more excellent way Obedience is the best security for both because this is the best conservatory of Charity and Truth and Peace Si vis brevi perfectus esse esto obediens etiam in minimis was the saying of a Saint and the World uses to look for Miracles from them whom they shall esteem Saints but I had rather see a man truly humble and obedient than to see him raise a man from the dead said old Pachomius But to conclude If weak Brethren shall still plead for Toleration and Compliance I hope my Lords the Bishops will consider where it can do good and do no harm where they are permitted and where themselves are bound up by the Laws and in all things where it is safe and holy to labour to bring them ease and to give them remedy but to think of removing the Disease by feeding the Humor I confess it is a strange Cure to our present Distempers He that took clay and spittle to open the blind eyes can make any thing be collyrium but he alone can do it But whether any humane Power can bring good from so unlikely an Instrument if any man desires yet to be better informed I desire him besides the calling to mind the late sad effects of Schism to remember that no Church in Christendom ever did it It is neither the way of Peace nor Government nor yet a proper Remedy for the cure of a weak Conscience I shall therefore pray to God That these men who separate in simplicity may by Gods mercy be brought to understand their own Liberty and that they may not for ever be Babes and Neophytes and wax old in trifles and for ever stay at the entrances and outsides of Religion but that they would pass in interiora domûs and seek after Peace and Righteousness Holiness and Justice the Love of God and Evangelical Perfections and then they will understand how ill-advised they are who think Religion consists in Zeal against Ceremonies and speaking evil of the Laws My Lords and Gentlemen what I said in pursuance of publick Peace and private Duty and some little incidences to both I now humbly present to You more to shew my own Obedience than to remind you of your Duty which hitherto You have so well observed in Your amicable and sweet concord of Councels and Affections during this present Session I owe many Thanks to You who heard me patiently willingly and kindly I endeavoured to please God and I find I did not displease You but he is the best hearer of a Sermon who first loves the Doctrine and then practises it and that You have hitherto done very piously and very prosperously I pray God continue to direct Your Counsels so that You in all things may please him and in all things be blessed by him that all Generations may call You blessed Instruments of a lasting Peace the Restorers of the old Paths the Patrons of the Church Friends of Religion and Subjects fitted for Your Prince who is Just up to the greatest Example and Merciful beyond all Examples a Prince who hath been Nourished and Preserved and Restored and Blessed by Miracles a Prince whose Virtues and Fortunes are equally the greatest A SERMON Preached at the opening of the PARLIAMENT SERM. V. 1 Sam. 15. latter part of verse 22. Behold to obey is better than sacrifice and to hearken than the fat of Rams First part of ver 23. For Rebellion is as the sin of Witchcraft and Stubbornness is as Iniquity and Idolatry IN the World nothing is more easie than to say our Prayers and to obey our Superiors and yet in the World there is nothing to which we are so unwilling as to Prayer and nothing seems so intolerable as Obedience for men esteem all Laws to be Fetters and their Superiors are their Enemies and when a command is given we turn into all shapes of excuse to escape from the imposition For either the authority is incompetent or the Law it self is Statutum non bonum or it is impossible to be kept or at least very inconvenient and we
ages past and troubled themselves with tying untying knots like Hypocondriacks in a fit of Melancholy thinking of nothing troubling themselves with nothing and falling out about nothings and being very wise very learned in things that are not and work not and were never planted in Paradise by the finger of God Mens notions are too often like the Mules begotten by aequivocal and unnatural Generations but they make no species they are begotten but they can beget nothing they are the effects of long study but they can do no good when they are produced they are not that which Solomon calls viam intelligentiae the way of understanding If the Spirit of God be our Teacher we shall learn to avoid evil and to do good to be wise and to be holy to be profitable and careful and they that walk in this way shall find more peace in their Consciences more skill in the Scriptures more satisfaction in their doubts than can be obtained by all the polemical and impertinent disputations of the world And if the holy Spirit can teach us how vain a thing it is to do foolish things he also will teach us how vain a thing it is to trouble the world with foolish Questions to disturb the Church for interest or pride to resist Government in things indifferent to spend the peoples zeal in things unprofitable to make Religion to consist in outsides and opposition to circumstances and trifling regards No no the Man that is wise he that is conducted by the Spirit of God knows better in what Christs Kingdom does consist than to throw away his time and interest and peace and safety for what for Religion no for the Body of Religion not so much for the Garment of the Body of Religion no not for so much but for the Fringes of the Garment of the Body of Religion for such and no better are the disputes that trouble our discontented Brethren they are things or rather Circumstances and manners of things in which the Soul and Spirit is not at all concerned 3. Holiness of life is the best way of finding out truth and understanding not only as a Natural medium nor only as a prudent medium but as a means by way of Divine blessing He that hath my Commandments and keepeth them he it is that loveth me and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and will manifest my self to him Here we have a promise for it and upon that we may relye The old man that confuted the Arian Priest by a plain recital of his Creed found a mighty power of God effecting his own Work by a strange manner and by a very plain instrument it wrought a divine blessing just as Sacraments use to do and this Lightning sometimes comes in a strange manner as a peculiar blessing to good men For God kept the secrets of his Kingdom from the wise Heathens and the learned Jews revealing them to Babes not because they had less learning but because they had more love they were children and Babes in Malice they loved Christ and so he became to them a light and a glory St. Paul had more Learning then they all and Moses was instructed in all the Learning of the Egyptians yet because he was the meekest man upon Earth he was also the wisest and to his humane Learning in which he was excellent he had a divine light and excellent wisdom superadded to him by way of spiritual blessings And St. Paul though he went very far to the Knowledge of many great and excellent truths by the force of humane learning yet he was far short of perfective truth and true wisdom till he learned a new Lesson in a new School at the feet of one greater then his Gamaliel his learning grew much greater his notions brighter his skill deeper by the love of Christ and his desires his passionate desires after Jesus The force and use of humane learning and of this Divine learning I am now speaking of are both well expressed by the Prophet Isaiah 29. 11 12. And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a Book that is sealed which men deliver to one that is learned saying Read this I pray thee and he saith I cannot for it is seal'd And the Book is delivered to him that is not learned saying Read this I pray thee and he saith I am not learned He that is no learned man who is not bred up in the Schools of the Prophets cannot read Gods Book for want of learning For humane Learning is the gate and first entrance of Divine vision not the only one indeed but the common gate But beyond this there must be another learning for he that is learned bring the Book to him and you are not much the better as to the secret part of it if the Book be sealed if his eyes be closed if his heart be not opened if God does not speak to him in the secret way of discipline Humane learning is an excellent Foundation but the top-stone is laid by Love and Conformity to the will of God For we may further observe that blindnesse errour and Ignorance are the punishments which God sends upon wicked and ungodly men Etiamsi propter nostrae intelligentiae tarditatem vitae demeritum veritas nondum se apertissime ostenderit was St. Austin's expression The truth hath not yet been manifested fully to us by reason of our demerits our sins have hindred the brightness of the truth from shining upon us And St. Paul observes that when the Heathens gave themselves over to lusts God gave them over to strong delusions to believe a Lie But God giveth to a man that is good in his sight wisdom and knowledge and joy said the wise Preacher But this is most expresly promised in the New Testament and particularly in that admirable Sermon which our blessed Saviour preach'd a little before his death The Comforter which is the Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my name he shall teach you all things Well there 's our Teacher told of plainly But how shall we obtain this teacher and how shall we be taught v. 15 16 17. Christ will pray for us that we may have this Spirit That 's well but shall all Christians have the Spirit Yes all that will live like Christians for so said Christ If ye love me keep my Commandments and I will pray the Father and he will give you another Comforter that may abide with you for ever even the spirit of truth whom the World cannot receive because it seeth him not neither knoweth him Mark these things The Spirit of God is our teacher he will abide with us for ever to be our teacher he will teach us all things but how if ye love Christ if ye keep his Commandments but not else if ye be of the World that is of worldly affections ye cannot see him ye
the great Syrian that stirred up the sluggish and awakened the sleepers and comforted the afflicted and brought the young men to discipline the Looking-glass of the Religious the Captain of the Penitents the destruction of Heresies the receptacle of Graces the habitation of the Holy Ghost These were the men that prevailed against Errour because they lived according to Truth and whoever shall oppose you and the Truth you walk by may better be confuted by your Lives than by your Disputations Let your adversaries have no evil thing to say of you and then you will best silence them For all Heresies and false Doctrines are but like Myron's counterfeit Cow it deceived none but Beasts and these can cozen none but the wicked and the negligent them that love a Lie and live according to it But if ye become burning and shining lights if ye do not detain the truth in unrighteousness if ye walk in light and live in the Spirit your Doctrines will be true and that Truth will prevail But if ye live wickedly and scandalously every little Schismatick shall put you to shame and draw Disciples after him and abuse your Flocks and feed them with Colocynths and Hemlock and place Heresie in the Chairs appointed for your Religion I pray God give you all Grace to follow this Wisdom to study this Learning to labour for the understanding of Godliness so your Time and your Studies your Persons and your Labours will be holy and useful sanctified and blessed beneficial to men and pleasing to God through him who is the Wisdom of the Father who is made to all that love him Wisdom and Righteousness and Sanctification and Redemption To whom with the Father c. FINIS A SERMON Preached in Christs-Church Dublin July 16. 1663. AT THE FUNERAL Of the Most Reverend Father in God JOHN Late Lord Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of all Ireland WITH A Succinct Narrative of His whole Life The fourth Edition enlarged By the Right Reverend Father in God Jeremy Lord Bishop of Down and Connor LONDON Printed for R. Royston Bookseller to the Kings Most Excellent Majesty 1666. A Funeral Sermon SERM. VII 1 Cor. XV. 23. But every Man in his own Order Christ the first fruits afterward they that are Christ's at his coming THE Condition of Man in this world is so limited and depressed so relative and imperfect that the best things he does he does weakly and the best things he hath are imperfections in their very constitution I need not tell how little it is that we know the greatest indication of this is That we can never tell how many things we know not and we may soon span our own Knowledge but our Ignorance we can never fathom Our very Will in which Mankind pretends to be most noble and imperial is a direct state of imperfection and our very liberty of Chusing good and evil is permitted to us not to make us proud but to make us humble for it supposes weakness of Reason and weakness of Love For if we understood all the degrees of Amability in the Service of God or if we had such love to God as he deserves and so perfect a conviction as were fit for his Services we could no more Deliberate For Liberty of Will is like the motion of a Magnetick Needle toward the North full of trembling and uncertainty till it were fixed in the beloved Point it wavers as long as it is free and is at rest when it can chuse no more And truly what is the hope of man It is indeed the Resurrection of of the Soul in this world from sorrow and her saddest pressures and like the Twilight to the Day and the Harbinger of joy but still it is but a conjugation of Infirmities and proclaims our present calamity only because it is uneasie here it thrusts us forwards toward the light and glories of the Resurrection For as a Worm creeping with her belly on the ground with her portion and share of Adam's Curse lifts up its head to partake a little of the blessings of the air and opens the junctures of her imperfect body and curles her little rings into knots and combinations drawing up her tail to a neighbourhood of the heads pleasure and motion but still it must return to abide the fate of its own nature and dwell and sleep upon the dust So are the hopes of a mortal man he opens his eyes and looks upon fine things at distance and shuts them again with weakness because they are too glorious to behold and the Man rejoices because he hopes fine things are staying for him but his heart akes because he knows there are a thousand ways to fail and miss of those glories and though he hopes yet he enjoys not he longs but he possesses not and must be content with his portion of dust and being a worm and no man must lie down in this portion before he can receive the end of his hopes the salvation of his Soul in the Resurrection of the dead For as Death is the end of our lives so is the Resurrection the end of our hopes and as we dye daily so we daily hope but Death which is the end of our life is the enlargement of our Spirits from hope to certainty from uncertain fears to certain expectations from the death of the Body to the life of the Soul that is to partake of the light and life of Christ to rise to life as he did for his Resurrection is the beginning of ours He dyed for us alone not for himself but he rose again for himself and us too So that if he did rise so shall we the Resurrection shall be universal good and bad all shall rise but not altogether First Christ then we that are Christs and yet there is a third Resurrection though not spoken of here but thus it shall be The dead of Christ shall rise first that is next to Christ and after them the wicked shall rise to condemnation So that you see here is the sum of affairs treated of in my Text Not whether it be lawful to eat a Tortoise or a Mushroom or to tread with the foot bare upon the ground within the Octaves of Easter It is not here inquired whether Angels be material or immaterial or whether the dwellings of dead Infants be within the Air or in the Regions of the Earth the inquiry here is whether we are to be Christians or no whether we are to live good lives or no or whether it be permitted to us to live with Lust or Covetousness acted with all the Daughters of Rapine and Ambition whether there be any such thing as sin any judicatory for Consciences any rewards of Piety any difference of Good and Bad any rewards after this life This is the design of these words by proper interpretation for if men shall dye like Dogs and Sheep they will certainly live like Wolves and Foxes but he that believes the Article of the
is a harder and more wonderful thing for a wicked man to become the friend of God than for one that is so to be carried up to heaven and partake of his Glory The first Resurrection is certainly the greater miracle But he that hath risen once may rise again and this is as sure as that he that dies once may die again and die for ever But he who partakes of the death of Christ by Mortification and of his Resurrection by holiness of life and a holy Faith shall according to the expression of the Prophet Isaiah Isa. 26. 20. Enter into his chamber of death when Nature and Gods decree shall shut the doors upon him and there he shall be hidden for a little moment But then shall they that dwell in dust awake and sing with Christs dead body shall they arise all shall rise but every man in his own order Christ the first fruits then they that are Christ's at his coming Amen I have now done with my meditation of the Resurrection but we have a new and a sadder subject to consider It is glorious and brave when a Christian contemplates those Glories which stand at the foot of the Account of all Gods Servants but when we consider that before all or any thing of this happens every Christian must twice exuere hominem put off the Old man and then lie down in dust and the dishonours of the grave it is Vinum Myrrhatum there is Myrrhe put into our Wine it is wholsom but it will allay all our pleasures of that glorious expectation But no man can escape it After that the Great Cyrus had Rul'd long in a mighty Empire yet there came a Message from Heaven not so sad it may be yet as decretory as the Hand-writing on the wall that arrested his Successor Darius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Prepare thy self O Cyrus and then go unto the Gods he laid aside his Tire and his beauteous Diadem and cover'd his face with a cloth and in a single Linen laid his honour'd head in a poor humble Grave And none of us all can avoid this Sentence For if Wit and Learning great Fame and great Experience if wise Notices of Things and an honourable Fortune if Courage and Skill if Prelacy and an honourable Age if any thing that could give Greatness and Immunity to a wise and prudent Man could have been put in bar against a sad day and have gone for good plea this sad Scene of Sorrows had not been the entertainment of this Assembly But tell me Where are those great Masters who while they liv'd flourish'd in their studies Jam eorum Praebendas alii possident nescio utrum de iis cogitant Other men have got their Prebends and their Dignities and who knows whether ever they remember them or no While they liv'd they seem'd nothing when they are dead every man for a while speaks of them what they please and afterwards they are as if they had not been But the piety of the Christian Church hath made some little provision towards an artificial Immortality for brave and worthy persons and the Friendships which our dead contracted while they were alive require us to continue a fair memory as long as we can but they expire in monthly minds or at most in a faint and declining Anniversary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And we have great reason so to do in this present sad accident of the death of our late most Reverend Primate whose death the Church of Ireland hath very great reason to deplore and we have great obligation to remember his very many worthy Deeds done for this poor afflicted and despised Church St. Paul made an excellent Funeral Oration as it were instituting a Feast of All Saints Who all died having obtained a good report And that excellent Preacher in the 11. cap. of the Hebrews made a Sermon of their Commemoration For since good men while they are alive have their Conversation in Heaven when they are in Heaven 't is also fit that they should in their good Names live upon Earth And as their great Examples are an excellent Sermon to the living and the praising them when Envy and Flattery can have no Interest to interpose as it is the best and most vigorous Sermon and Incentive to great things so to conceal what good God hath wrought by them is great unthankfulness to God and to good men When Dorcas died the Apostle came to see the dead Corps and the Friends of the deceased expressed their grief and their love by shewing the Coats that she whilst she lived wrought with her own hands She was a good Needle-woman and a good Huswife and did good to mankind in her little way and that it self ought not to be forgotten and the Apostle himself was not displeased with their little Sermons and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the women made upon that sad interview But if we may have the same liberty to record the worthy things of this our most venerable Father and Brother and if there remains no more of that Envy which usually obscures the splendour of living Heroes if you can with your charitable though weeping eyes behold the great gifts of God with which he adorned this great Prelate and not object the failings of humanity to the participation of the Graces of the Spirit or think that Gods Gifts are the less because they are born in earthen Vessels 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for all men bear Mortality about them and the Cabinet is not so beauteous as the Diamond that shines within its bosom then we may without interruption pay this duty to Piety and Friendship and Thankfulness and deplore our sad loss by telling a true and sad story of this great man whom God hath lately taken from our eyes He was bred in Cambridge in Sidney-Colledge under Mr. Hulet a grave and a worthy man and he shewed himself not only a fruitful Plant by his great progress in his Studies but made him another return of gratitude taking care to provide a good Imployment for him in Ireland where he then began to be greatly interested It was spoken as an honour to Augustus Caesar that he gave his Tutor an honourable Funeral and Marcus Antoninus erected a Statue unto his and Gratian the Emperour made his Master Ausonius to be Consul And our worthy Primate knowing the Obligation which they pass upon us who do Obstetricare gravidae animae help the parturient Soul to bring forth Fruits according to its seminal powers was careful not only to reward the industry of such persons so useful to the Church in the cultivating infantes palmarum young Plants whose joynts are to be stretch'd and made streight but to demonstrate that his Scholar knew how to value Learning when he knew so well how to reward the Teacher Having pass'd the course of his Studies in the University and done his Exercise with that applause which is usually the
a vice that she might only see it and loath it but never taste of it so much as to be put to her choice whether she would be virtuous or no. God intending to secure this Soul to himself would not suffer the follies of the world to seize upon her by way of too neer a trial or busie temptation 3. She was married young and besides her businesses of Religion seemed to be ordained in the providence of God to bring to this honourable Family a part of a fair Fortune and to leave behind her a fairer Issue worth ten thousand times her Portion And as if this had been all the publick business of her life when she had so far served Gods ends God in mercy would also serve hers and take her to an early blessedness 4. In passing through which line of providence she had the art to secure her eternal Interest by turning her Condition into Duty and expressing her Duty in the greatest eminency of a virtuous prudent and rare affection that hath been known in any example I will not give her so low a testimony as to say only that she was chast She was a Person of that severity modesty and close Religion as to that particular that she was not capable of uncivil temptation and you might as well have suspected the Sun to smell of the Poppy that he looks on as that she could have been a person apt to be sullied by the breath of a soul question 5. But that which I shall note in her is that which I would have exemplar to all Ladies and to all Women She had a love so great for her Lord so intirely given up to a dear affection that she thought the same things and loved the same loves and hated according to the same enmities and breathed in his soul and lived in his presence and languished in his absence and all that she was or did was only for and to her dearest Lord Si gaudet si flet St tacet hunc loquitur Coenat propinat poscit negat innuit unus Naevius est And although this was a great enamel to the beauty of her Soul yet it might in some degrees be also a reward to the Virtue of her Lord For she would often discourse it to them that convers'd with her that he would improve that interest which he had in her affection to the advantages of God and of Religion and she would delight to say that he called her to her Devotions he encouraged her good inclinations he directed her piety he invited her with good Books and then she loved Religion which she saw was not only pleasing to God and an act or state of duty but pleasing to her Lord and an act also of affection and conjugal obedience and what at first she loved the more forwardly for his sake in the using of Religion left such relishes upon her spirit that she found in it amability enough to make her love it for its own So God usually brings us to him by instruments of nature and affections and then incorporates us into his Inheritance by the more immediate relishes of Heaven and the secret things of the Spirit He only was under God the light of her eyes and the cordial of her spirits and the guide of her actions and the measure of her affections till her affections swell'd up into a Religion and then it could go no higher but was confederate with those other duties which made her dear to God which rare combination of Duty and Religion I chuse to express in the words of Solomon She forsook not the guide of her youth nor brake the Covenant of her God 6. As she was a rare Wife so she was an excellent Mother For in so tender a constitution of spirit as hers was and in so great a kindness towards her Children there hath seldom been seen a stricter and more curious care of their persons their deportment their nature their disposition their learning and their customs And if ever kindness and care did contest and make parties in her yet her care and her severity was ever victorious and she knew not how to do an ill turn to their severer part by her more tender and forward kindness And as her custom was she turned this also into love to her Lord For she was not only diligent to have them bred nobly and religiously but also was careful and sollicitous that they should be taught to observe all the circumstances and inclinations the desires and wishes of their Father as thinking that virtue to have no good circumstances which was not dressed by his copy and ruled by his lines and his affections And her prudence in the managing her children was so singular and rare that when ever you mean to bless this family and pray a hearty and a profitable prayer for it beg of God that the children may have those excellent things which she designed to them and provided for them in her heart and wishes that they may live by her purposes and may grow thither whither she would fain have brought them All these were great parts of an excellent Religion aâ— they concerned her greatest temporal relations 7. But if we examine how she demeaned her self towards God there also you will find her not of a common but of an exemplar piety She was a great reader of Scripture confining her self to great portions every day which she read not to the purposes of vanity and impertinent curiosities not to seem knowing or to become talking not to expound and rule but to teach her all her duty to instruct her in the knowledge and love of God and of her Neighbours to make her more humble and to teach her to despise the world and all its gilded vanities and that she might entertain passions wholly in design and order to Heaven I have seen a female Religion that wholly dwelt upon the face and tongue that like a wanton and an undressed tree spends all its juice in suckers and irregular branches in leafs and gum and after all such goodly outsides you should never eat an Apple or be delighted with the beauties or the perfumes of a hopeful blossom But the Religion of this excellent Lady was of another constitution It took root downward in humility and brought forth fruit upward in the substantial graces of a Christian in Charity and Justice in Chastity and Modesty in fair Friendships and sweetness of Society She had not very much of the forms and outsides of godliness but she was hugely careful for the power of it for the moral essential and useful parts such which would make her be not seem to be religious 8. She was a very constant person at her prayers and spent all her time which Nature did permit to her choice in her devotions and reading and meditating and the necessary offices of houshold Government every one of which is an action of Religion some by nature some by adoption To these also
and be very zealous for nothing but for Gods glory and the salvation of the World and particularly of your Charges Ever remembring that you are by God appointed as the Ministers of Prayer and the Ministers of good things to pray for all the World and to heal all the World as far as you are able rule XVI Every Minister must learn and practise Patience that by bearing all adversity meekly and humbly and cheerfully and by doing all his Duty with unwearied industry with great courage constancy and Christian magnanimity he may the better assist his people in the bearing of their crosses and overcoming their difficulties rule XVII He that is holy let him be holy still and still more holy and never think he hath done his work till all be finished by perseverance and the measures of perfection in a holy Life and a holy Death but at no hand must he magnifie himself by vain separations from others or despising them that are not so holy II. Of Prudence required in Ministers rule XVIII REmember that Discretion is the Mistress of all Graces and Humility is the greatest of all Miracles and without this all Graces perish to a mans self and without that all Gracâ—â— are useless unto others rule XIX Let no Minister be governed by the opinion of his People and destroy his Duty by unreasonable compliance with their humours lest as the Bishop of Granata told the Governours of Leria and Patti like silly Animals they take burdens upon their backs at the pleasure of the multitude which they neither can retain with Prudence nor shake off with Safety rule XX Let not the Reverence of any man cause you to sin against God but in the matter of Souls being well advis'd be bold and confident but abate nothing of the honour of God or the just measures of your Duty to satisfie the importunity of any man whatsoever and God will bear you out rule XXI When you teach your people any part of their duty as in paying their debts their tithes and offerings in giving due reverence and religious regards diminish nothing of admonition in these particulars and the like though they object That you speak for your selves and in your own cases For counsel is not the worse but the better if it be profitable both to him that gives and to him that takes it Only do it in simplicity and principally intend the good of their souls rule XXII In taking accounts of the good Lives of your selves or others take your measures by the express words of Scripture and next to them estimate them by their proportion and compliance with the publick measures with the Laws of the Nation Ecclesiastical and Civil and by the Rules of Fame of publick Honesty and good Report and last of all by their observation of the Ordinances and exteriour parts of Religion rule XXIII Be not satisfied when you have done a good work unless you have also done it well and when you have then be careful that vain-glory partiality self-conceit or any other folly or indiscretion snatch it not out of your hand and cheat you of the reward rule XXIV Be careful so to order your self that you fall not into temptation and folly in the presence of any of your Charges and especially that you fall not into chidings and intemperate talkings and sudden and violent expressions Never be a party in clamours and scoldings lest your Calling become useless and your Person contemptible Ever remembring that if you cheaply and lightly be engag'd in such low usages with any Person that Person is likely to be lost from all possibility of receiving much good from your Ministry III. The Rules and Measures of Government to be used by Ministers in their respective Cures rule XXV USe no violence to any man to bring him to your opinion but by the word of your proper Ministry by Demonstrations of the Spirit by rational Discourses by excellent Examples constrain them to come in and for other things they are to be permitted to their own liberty to the measures of the Laws and the conduct of their Governours rule XXVI Suffer no quarrel in your Parish and speedily suppress it when it is begun and though all wise men will abstain from interposing in other mens affairs and especially in matters of Interest which men love too well yet it is your Duty here to interpose by perswading them to friendships reconcilements moderate prosecutions of their pretences and by all means you prudently can to bring them to peace and brotherly kindness rule XXVII Suffer no houses of Debauchery of Drunkenness or Lust in your Parishes but implore the assistance of Authority for the suppressing of all such meeting-places and nurseries of Impiety and as for places of publick Entertainment take care that they observe the Rules of Christian Piety and the allowed measures of Laws rule XXVIII If there be any Papists or Sectaries in your Parishes neglect not frequently to confer with them in the spirit of meekness and by the importunity of wise Discourses seeking to gain them But stir up no violences against them but leave them if they be incurable to the wise and merciful disposition of the Laws rule XXIX Receive not the people to doubtful Disputations and let no names of Sects or differing Religions be kept up amongst you to the disturbance of the publick Peace and private Charity and teach not the people to estimate their Piety by their distance from any Opinion but by their Faith in Christ their Obedience to God and the Laws and their Love to all Christian people even though they be deceived rule XXX Think no man considerable upon the point or pretence of a tender Conscience unless he live a good life and in all things endeavour to approve himself void of offence both toward God and Man but if he be an humble Person modest and inquiring apt to learn and desirous of information if he seeks for it in all ways reasonable and pious and is obedient to Laws then take care of him use him tenderly perswade him meekly reprove him gently and deal mercifully with him till God shall reveal that also unto him in which his unavoidable trouble and his temptation lies rule XXXI Mark them that cause Divisions among you and avoid them for such Persons are by the Scripture called Scandals in the abstract they are Offenders and Offences too But if any man have an Opinion let him have it to himself till he can be cur'd of his disease by time and counsel and gentle usages But if he separates from the Church or gathers a Congregation he is proud and is fallen from the Communion of Saints and the Unity of the Catholick Church rule XXXII He that observes any of his people to be zealous let him be careful to conduct that zeal into such channels where there is least danger of inconveniency let him employ it in something that is good let it be press'd to fight