and indeavours to the holding of the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace and labour and study not how to widen or gall and ranckle but how to salve and heal these unhappy sores of the Church and State by confineing our desires within the due bounds free from incroachments from innovations by a discreet moderation in all our prosecutions by a meek relenting even in due challenges by a fair and charitable construction of each others acts and intentions and lastly by our fervent perswasions and prayers and so many as are thus minded peace be upon them and upon the whole Israel of God this day and for ever Amen A SERMON Preacht at the TOWER March 20. 1641. By JOS. NORVIC JAMES 4.8 Draw nigh unto God and he will draw nigh to you Cleanse your hands ye sinners and purge your hearts ye double minded 9. Be afflicted and mourne and weep c. I Have pitch't upon this Text as fit for both the time and the season both of them sad and penitentiall and such as call us to devotion and humiliation both which are the subjects of this Scripture There is no estate so happy if it could be obtained as that of perfect obedience but since that cannot be had partly through the weaknesse and partly through the wickednesse of our nature for there is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an impossibility upon it Rom. 3. the next to it is that of true repentance which is no other then an hearty turning from our evill wayes and an indeavour of better obedience and this estate is here recommended to us under a double Alegory the one of our drawing nigh to God the other of our cleansing and purging In the former whereof the sinner is represented to us in a remote distance from God in the other as foul and nasty both in his heart and his hands and the remedy is prescribed for both of his remotenesse drawing nigh to God of his foulnesse Cleansing and purging the former is enough to take up our thoughts at this time Wherein ye have a duty injoyned and an inducement urged the Duty draw nigh to God the Inducement God will draw nigh to you To begin with the former the duty of drawing nigh implies something and requires something it implies a distance and requires an act of approach It implies a distance for we cannot be said to draw near if we were not afar off The sinner therefore is in a remote distance from God and that in respect of both termes both as of God and as of the sinner Of God first the sinner then is aloof off from God not from the presence of his essence and power so he would be afar off and cannot Whether shall I go from thy presence or whether shall I flee from thy Spirit If I go up to Heaven thou art there and if as our new Translation hath it I make my bed in hell an uneasy bed God knowes that is made there yet there thou art also Ye the Devills themselves could not have their being but from God for their being is good though themselves be wicked that they are spirits they have from God that they are evil Spirits and so Devils is from themselves And their companions the wofull reprobate soules would fain be further off from God if they could They shall in vain call to the Rocks and Mountains to cover them from his presence he cannot be excluded from any place that fills and comprehends all things How then is the sinner aloof off from God From the holinesse of God from the grace and mercy of God from the glory of God From the holinesse of God he is no lesse distant then evill is from good which is no lesse then infinitely There is no locall distance but is capable of a measure for an actuall infinite magnitude is but an atheous paradoxe in philosophy If it be to the Antipodes themselves on the other side of the earth we can have a scale of miles that can reach them yea of furlongs of paces of feet of barley cornes but betwixt good and evil there is no possible no imaginable proportion and as from the holinesse of God so from the grace and mercy of God he is no lesse distant then guilt is from remission which is also no lesse then infinitely for the sinner as he is and continues such is utterly uncapable of remission It is true that Gods mercy is over all his works but the sinner is none of them By him were made all things that were made John 1. but God never made the sinner God made the man but it is the Devil and mans free-will that made the sinner indeed sin is nothing else but the marring of that which God hath made sin therefore without repentance may never hope for remission when repentance comes in place it ceaseth in Gods imputation to be it self but without it there is no place for mercy Many sorrows saith the Psalmist shall be to the wicked Psal 32.10 but he that trusteth in the Lord mercy shall compasse him about Lo sorrowes and torment are for the wicked mercy only for the penitent and faithfull The sinner may flatter himself as our nature is apt to do Mens sibi saepe mentitur with a vaine hope of better but he that is truth it self hath said it There is no peace saith my God to the wicked tribulation and anguish on every soul that doth evill he that hardens his heart shall fall into evill And as he is a aloof off from Grace as the way so from Glory as the end here is indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a great gulfe and unmeasurable betwixt the Sinner and Heaven One is not so much as within the ken of the other without holiness there is no seeing of God saith St· Paul Hebr. 12.14 no not so much as afar off unlesse it be for an aggravation of torment Much lesse may any unclean thing enter there Look as impossible as it is for a man that hath this clogg of flesh about him to leap into the Skie so impossible it is for the soul that is clogged with sin ever to come within the verge within the view of the third Heaven which is the presence of the Lord of Glory This for the distance in respect of God will ye see it in respect of the sinner himself He is aloof off from God in his thoughts in his affections in his carriage and actions In his thoughts first which are onely evill continually He never thinks of God but when he feels him punishing and then not without a murmuring kind of regret Psal 10.4 and indignation no not even whiles he sweares by him doth he think of him God is not in all his thoughts saith the Psalmist that is by an usuall Hebraisme God is not at all in his thoughts for otherwise unlesse it be virtually and reductively there is no man whose thoughts are altogether taken up with the Almighty the
my power I can much better suffer with my Friend then judge him But however either partial or rigorous the conceits of others may be be sure I beseech you that you receive from your own bosome a free and just doom on all your actions after all the censures of others thence must proceed either your peace or torment But what do I undertake to teach him that is already in the School of God and under that divine ferule hath learned more then by all the Theorical counsels of prosperity Surely I cannot but professe that I know not whether I were more sorry for the desert of your durance or glad of such fruit thereof as mine eyes end ears witnessed from you But one Sabaoth is past since my meditations were occasioned to fixe themselves upon the gain which Gods children make of their sins the practise whereof I rejoyced to see conconcurr in you with my speculation and indeed it is one of the wonders of Gods mercy and providence that those wounds wherewith Satan hopes to kill the Soul through the wise and gratious ordination of God serve to heal it We faint Souldiers should never fight so valliantly if it were not for the indignation at our foil There are corruptions that may lurk secretly in a corner of the Soul unknown unseen till the shame of a notorious evil send us to search and ransacke if but a spot light upon our cloke we regard it not but if through our neglect or the violence of a blast it fall into the mire then we wash and scoure it As we use therefore to say there cannot be better physick to a cholerick body then a seasonable Ague so may I say safely there can be nothing so advantageous to a secure heart as to be sinsick for hereby he who before fel in overpleasing himself begins to displease himself at his fall Fire never ascends so high as when it is beaten back with a cool blast Water that runs in a smooth level with an insensible declination though an heavy body yet if it fall low it rises high again Much forgiven causeth much love neither had the penitent made an ewer of her eyes and a towel of her hair for Christs feet if she had not found her self more faulty then her neighbours Had not Peter thrice denyed he had not been graced with that threefold question of his Saviours love it is an harsh but a true word Gods Children have cause to blesse him for nothing more then for their sins If that all-wise providence have thought good to raise up even your forgotten sins in your face to shame you before men there cannot be a greater argument of his mercy This blushing shall avoid eternal confusion Envy not at the felicity of the closely or gloriously guilty who have at once firm foreheads and foul bosomes vaunting therefore of their innocence because they can have no accusers like wicked harlots who because they were delivered without a midwife and have made away their stolen birth go currant still for maids nothing can be more miserable then a sinners prosperity this argues him bound over in Gods just decree to an everlasting vengeance Wo be to them that laugh here for they shall weep and gnash Happy is that shame that shall end in glory And if the wisdome of that just judge of the world shall think fit to strip you of your worldly wealth and outward estate acknowledg his mercy and your gain in this loss he saw this camels bunch kept you out of the needles eye he saw these bels too heavy for that high flight to which he intended you now shall you begin to be truely rich when you can injoy the possessor of Heaven and Earth when these base rivals are shut out of doors God shall have your whole heart who were not himself if he were not all-sufficient Neither let it lye too heavy upon your heart that your hopefull Sons shall inherit nothing from you but shame and dishonour why are you injurious to your self and those you love your repentance shall feoffe upon them more blessings then your sin hath lost let posterity say they were the sons of a penitent Father this stain is washt off with your tears and their vertue and for their provision if the worst fall The Earth is the Lords and the fulness thereof imagine them born to nothing we that are more Rich in Children then estate hope well of those vessels whom we can put forth wel rigged well balla'st though not wealthy laden How sensibly do you now find that wealth doth not consist in getting much but well and that contentment doth not lye in the cofer but in the breast lastly that all treasures are drosse to a good conscience For your self If you be pent up within four wals and barred both of Sun and Men make God yours and you cannot complain of restraint or solitude No prison is too straight for his presence Heaven it self would be a prison without him your serious repentance may win that Society which makes the very Angels blessed this is the way to make him your comforter your companion in whose presence is the fulness of joy Shortly let your thoughts be altogether such as may beseem a man not unwillingly weaned from this world and careful only to speed happily in another We your poor friends can answer the kinde respects of your prosperity no otherwise then with our prayers for the best use of your affliction which shall not be wanting from your true and sorrowful wel-willer J. H. A SHORT ANSWER TO THOSE Nine Arguments VVhich are brought against the BISHOPS SITTING IN PARLIAMENT THose reasons had need to be strong and the inconveniences hainous that should take away an ancient and hereditary right established by law These are not such 1. To trade in secular affairs and to be taken up with them is indeed a great and just hinderance to the exercise of our ministerial function but to meet once in three years in a Parliament for some few weeks at the same time when we are bound to attend convocation business is no sensible impediment to our holy calling 2. We do indeed promise profess when we enter into holy orders that we will give our selves so much as in us lies wholly to this vocation will it therefore follow that we may not upon any occasion lend our selves to the care of the publick when we are thereunto called And if this notwithstanding we may yea must take moderate care of our houshold affairs and the provision for our family why not as well of the Common-wealth 3. For ancient Canons of Councells will they be content to be bound by them who urge them upon us Or will they admit some and reject others Or will they admit them where they are contrary to our own laws Now our Clarendon Constit have expresly debent interesse omnibus judiciis The Canons therefore must yield to them not they to the Canons 4. Twenty
God hath taken at our thus Grieving of him his Indearments our Ingagements his Expectation were we a people that God had no whit promerited by his favours that he had done nothing for us more then for the savage Nations of the World surely the God of Heaven had not taken it so deeply to heart but now that he hath been more kind to us then to any Nation under Heaven how doth he call Heaven and Earth to record of the justnesse of his high regret Hear O Heaven and hearken O Earth for the Lord himself hath spoken I have nourished and brought up Children and they have rebelled against me Esa 1.2 and excellently Jerem. 2.31 O generation see the word of the Lord have I been a wilderness to Israel a land of darkness therefore it followes Behold I will plead with thee ver 35. Neither are his indearments of us more then our ingagements to him for what Nation in all the World hath made a more glorious profession of the name of God then this of ours What Church under the cope of Heaven hath been more famous and flourishing Had we not pretended to holiness and purity of religion even beyond others the unkindness had been the lesse now our unanswerablenesse calls God to the highest protestation of his offence Be astonished O Heavens and be horribly afraid be ye very desolate saith the Lord for my people have committed two evils they have forsaken me the Fountain of living waters and have hewen them out Cisternes broken Cisternes that can hold no water Jer. 2.11 And who is so blind as my servant Esa 42.19 Now according to his Indearments and our Ingagements hath been his just expectation of an answerable carriage of us towards him the Husbandman looks not for a crop in the wild desart but where he hath Gooded and plowed and Eared and Sowne why should not he look for an harvest And this disappointment is a just heightner of his griefe what could I have done more for my Vineyard that I have not done I looked for grapes and it brought forth wild grapes And now I will tell you what I will do to my Vineyard I will take away the hedge thereof and I will lay it wast Esa 5.4 5. Wo is me we do not hear but feel God making his fearfull word good upon us I need not tell you what we suffer the word of Esay is fulfilled here It shall be a vexation onely to understand the report Esa 28.19 Alas we know it too well what rivers of blood what piles of Carcasses are to be seen on all sides would God I could as easily tell you of the Remedy and why can I not do so Doubtlesse there is a remedy no lesse certain then our suffering if we had but the grace to use it too long alas too long have we driven off the applying of our redress yet even still there is Balme in Gilead still there is hope yea assurance of help if we will not be wanting to our selves we have grieved our God to the height Oh that we could resolve to make our peace with our provoked God at the last Excellent is that of Esay 27.5 Let him take hold of my strength and make Peace with me and he shall make peace with with me Oh that we could take hold of our strong Helper who is mighty to save that we would lay hold on the strength of his marvellous mercies Oh that we could take Benhadads course here as they said of the King of Israel much more may I say of the God of Israel He is a merciful God let us put sackcloth upon our loynes and ropes upon our heads and go to the God of Israel and say Thy servants say I pray thee let us live 1 K. 20.31 Oh that it could greive us thoroughly that we have greived so good a God that we could by a sound and serious humiliation and hearty Repentance reconcile our selves to that offended Majesty we should yet live to praise him for his mercifull deliverance and for the happy restauration of our peace which God for his mercies sake vouchsafe to graunt us Thus much for the grieving of the holy Spirit in himself by way of allusion to humane affection Now followes that grievance which by way of Sympathy he feels in his Saints Anselme Aquinas Estius and other latter Interpreters have justly construed one branch of this offence of the Holy Spirit to be when through our leud despightful words or actions we grieve and scandalize those Saints and Servants of God in whom that Holy Spirit dwells It is true as Zanchius observes well that it is no thank to a wicked man that the Spirit of God is not grieved by him even in person he doth what he can to vex him the Impossibility is in the Impassiblenesse of the Spirit of God not in the Will of the Agent But although not in himself yet in his faithful Ones he may and doth grieve him They are the Receptacles of the Holy Ghost which he so possesses and takes up that the injuries and affronts done to them are felt and acknowledged by him As when an enemy offers to burn or pull down or strip plunder the house the Master or Owner takes the violence as done to himself We are the Temples the Houses wherein it pleaseth the Spirit of God to dwell what is done to us is done to him in us He challengeth as our Actions The Spirit of God prayes in us Rom. 8.26 so our Passions also he is grieved in our grief such an interest hath God in his that as Christ the second person in the Trinity could say to Saul why persecutest thou me So the Holy Ghost appropriates our injuries to himself If ye be reproached for the Name of Christ happy are ye saith S. Peter for the Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you on their part he is evil spoken of but on your part he is glorified 1 Pet. 4.14 Lo the Holy Spirit is glorified by our sufferings and is evil spoken of in our reproaches the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is blasphemed so as it is a fearful thing to think of to speak contumelious words against Gods children is by the Apostles own determination no better then a kinde of blaspheming the Holy Ghost See then consider ye malicious uncharitable men your wrongs reach further then ye are aware of ye suffer your tongues to run ryot in bitter Scoffs in spightful slanders in injurious raylings against those that are truly conscionable ye think ye gall none but men worse then your selves but ye shall finde that ye have opened your mouthes against Heaven I speak not for those that are meer outsides visors of Christianity making a shew of Godliness and denving the power of it in their lives I take no protection of them God shall give them their portion with Hypocrites But if he be a true childe of God one that hath the true fear
besides it And indeed what other can we insist upon Outward profession will not do it many a one shall say Lord Lord with a zealous reduplication which yet shall be excluded And for pretended revelations they are no lesse deceitfull Satan oftentimes transforming himself into an Angel of light A Zidkijeh thinks he hath the Spirit as well as any Michaiah of them all our books are full of the reports of dangerous dulusions of this kind whereby it hath come to pass that many a one in stead of the true David hath found nothing but an image of clouts laid upon a bolster stuffed with Goats hair 1 Sam. 19.16 But this mark of reall sanctification cannot fail us It will ever hold good that which St. Paul hath Rom. 8. So many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the Sons of God Nothing in this World can so highly concern us as this to see and know whether we be sealed to the day of Redemption Would we know how it may be evidenced to us look upon the impression that Gods Spirit hath made upon our hearts and lives if he have renewed us in the inner man and wrought us unto true holiness to a lively faith to a sincere love of God to a conscionable care of all our actions and to all other his good graces doubtlesse we are so sealed that all the powers of Hell cannot deface and obliterate this blessed impression But the principal main use of this Seal is for certainty of performance If we have the word of an honest man we believe it but if we have his hand we make our selves more sure but if we have both his hand and seal we rest secure of the accomplishing of what is given or undertaken How much more assurance may we have when we have the word of a God whose very title is Amen Rev. 3.14 whose promises are like himself Yea and Amen 2 Cor. 1.20 Alas the best man is deceitful upon the balance and his true stile is Omnis homo mend ax every man is a lyer But for this God of truth Heaven and Earth shall passe away before one tittle of his word shall fail but when that promise is seconded by his Seal what a transcendent assurance is here It is the charge of the Apostle Peter Give diligence to make your calling and election sure 2 Pet. 1.10 Sure not in respect of God whom no changes can reach whose word is I am Jehovah my counsel shall stand but in respect of our apprehension not in regard of the object only which cannot fail but even of the subject also which if it were not fecible sure the Spirit of God would not have injoyned it or imposed it upon us The Vulgar reads Per bona opera by good works And indeed it is granted by Beza and Clamier that in some Greek copies it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereupon Bellarmine would fain take an advantage to prove his conjecturall assurance A strange match of words meerly contradictory for if but conjecturall how can it be assurance and if it be assurance how only conjecturall we may as well talk of a false truth as a conjecturall assurance But that implication of Bellarmine is easily blown over if we consider that these Good works do not only comprehend external works as almes-deeds prayer attendance on Gods ordinances and the like but also the internall acts of the soul the Acts of believing the Acts of the love of God the Acts of that hope which shall never make us ashamed These will evidence as our calling and election so the certainty of both and therefore are the seal of our Redemption Let foolish men have leave to improve their wits to their own wrong in pleading for the uncertainty of their right to Heaven But for us let us not suffer our souls to take any rest till we have this blessed seal put upon us to the assuring of our Redemption and Salvation that we may be able to say with the chosen vessel God hath sealed us and given us the earnest of his Spirit in our hearts 2 Cor. 1.22 If we have the grant of some good lease or some goodly Mannor made to us by word of mouth we stay not till we have gotten it under black and white and not then till we have it under seal nor then if it be a perpetuity till we have livery and seizin given us of it and when all this is done we make account securely to enjoy our hopes and shall we be lesse carefull of the main-chance even of the eternal inheritance of Heaven Lo here all these done for us Here is the word preaching peace and Salvation to all that believe here are his Scriptures the internal monuments of his written word confirming it here is the seal added to it here is the Livery and Seâ—zin given in the earnest of his Spirit and here is sufficient witnesse to all even Gods Spirit witnessing with our Spirits that we are the sons of God Let us finde this in our bosome and we are happy neither let our hearts be quiet till we can say with the chosen Vessel I am perswaded that neither life nor death nor Angels nor Principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any creature can be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord Rom. 3. the last verse Lo this is not a guesse but an assurance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 neither doth the Apostle speak of his own speciall revelation as the Popish Doctors would pretend but he takes all beleevers into the partnership of this comfortable unfailablenesse nothing shall separate us thus happy are we if we be sealed unto the day of Redemption Having now handled the parts severally let us if you please put them together and see the power of this inference or argument ye are by the Spirit of God sealed to the day of redemption Oh therefore grieve not that Spirit of God by whom ye are thus sealed The Spirit of God hath infinitely merited of you hath done so much for you as ye are not capable to conceive much lesse to answer in so Heavenly an obsignation Oh then be you tender of giving any offence to that good Spirit Do not you dare to do ought that might displease that loving and beneficent Spirit Be not you so much your own enemies as to give just distast to your good God So as the force of the argument as we intimated at the first lies upon an action of unkindnesse affording us this instruction that the ground of Gods Childrens fear to offend must be out of love and thankfulness great is thy mercy that thou maist be feared saith the Psalmist he doth not say great is thy mercy that thou maist be loved nor great is thy Majesty that thou maist be feared but great is thy mercy that thou maist be feared base servile natures are kept in with feare
brimstone from heaven upon us now is it high time to mourne for the anteverting of a threatned vengeance shortly therefore to sum up all that we have spoken whether we feel evils of punishment or fear them or be conscious of the evils of sin that have deserved them we cannot but finde it a just time to weep and mourne And now to come home close to our selves can any man be so wilfully blind as not to see that all these are met together to wring tears from us and to call us to a solemn and universal mourning What single men suffer themselves best feel and our old word is The wronged man writes in marble I meddle not with particulars Our pains of body our losses in our estate our demestique crosses our wounds of Spirit as they are kept up in our own breasts so they justly call us to private humiliations if we cast abroad our eyes to more publick afflictions have we not seen that God hath let his sea loose upon us in divers parts of our Land as if for a new judgment upon us he would retract the old word of his decreed limitation Hitherto shalt thou come but no further and here shall thy proud waves be stayed Job 38.11 Hath not God given us in divers parts of our Nation a feeling touch of some of the Egyptian plagues in the mortality of our cattle in the unusual frequencie of noysome and devouring vermine But wo is me all these are but flea-bites in comparison of that destructive sword that hath gone through the Land and sheathed it self in the bowels of hundred thousands of brethren Oh that my head were waters and mine eyes a fountain of tears that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my People Jer. 9.1 Was there ever a more fearful example of divine vengeance against any Nation then to be armed against each other to their mutual destruction that Christian compatriots brethren should pour out each others blood like water in our streets and leave their mangled carcasses for compost in our Fields That none but the sharper sword should be left to be the arbiter of our deadly differences that Fathers and Sons should so put off all natural affection as to think it no violation of piety to cut the throats of each other Oh that we have lived to see the woful havock that the hellish fury of war hath made every where in this flourishing and populous Island the flames of hostile furie rising up in our Towns and Cities the devastation of our fruitful and pleasant Villages the demolition of our magnificent Structures the spoiles and ruines of those fabricks that should be sacred in a word this goodly Land for a great part of it turned to a very Golgotha and Aceldama These these my brethren if our eyes be not made of pumices must needs fetch tears from us and put us into a constant habit of mourning And if our punishments deserve thus to take up our hearts where shall we find room enough for sufficient sorrow for those horrible sins that have drawn down these heavy judgments upon us Truly beloved brethren if we were wholly resolved into tears and if every drop were a stream 1 Kin. 8.38 we could not weep enough for our own sins and the sins of our People Let every man ransack his own breast and finde out the plague of his own heart but for the present let me have leave a little to lay before you though it is no pleasing object that common leprosie of sin wherewith the face of this miserable Nation is over-spread whether in matter of practise or of opinion For the former should I gather up all the complaints of the Prophets which they have taken up of old against their Israel and Juda and apply them to this Church and Nation you would verily think them calculated to this our meridian as if our sins were thiers and their reproofs ours what one sin can be named in all that black bedrole of wickednesse reckoned up by those holily querulos censors which we must not own for ours Of whom do you think the Prophet Esaiah speaks when he sayes Your iniquities have separated between you and your God and your sins have hid his face from you that he will not hear for your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity your lips have spoken lies your tongue hath muttered perversnesse Esay 59.2.3 Of whom do ye think the Prophet Micah speaks when he sayes The rich men thereof are full of violence and the inhabitants thereof have spoken lies and their tongue is deceitfull in their mouthes Micah 6.12 Do we think of Epicurisme and self-indulgence Whom do we think the Prophet Amos speaks of when he saies Wo be to them that are at ease in Zion that put farr away the evill day and cause the seat of violence to come near that lye upon beds of Ivory and stretch themselves upon their couches that drink wine in bowles and anoint themselves with the chief ointment but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph Amos 6.1.3.4.6 Tell me brethren was there ever more riot and excesse in diet and clothes in belly-cheer and back-timber then we see at this day Do we think of drunkennesse and surfets Of whom do we think Esay speaks when he saith They have erred through Wine and through strong drink are out of the way the Priest and the Prophet have erred through strong drink Indian smoak was not then known they are swallowed up of wine they are out of the way through strong drink they erre in vision they stumble in judgment for all tables are full of vomit and filthinesse Esay 28.7 Of whom doth the Prophet Hosea speak when he sayes Whoredome and Wine and new Wine take away the heart well may these two be put together for they seldom go asunder but tell me brethren was there ever such abominable beastlinesse in this kinde as raigns at this day since the hedg of all Ecclesiasticall Jurisdiction was throwne open And if we think good to put these and some other of their damnable society together of whom do we think the Prophet Hosea speaks when he sayes The Lord hath a controversy with the Land because there is no truth no mercy no knowledg of God in the Land By swearing and lying and killing and stealing and committing adultery they break out and blood toucheth blood Hos 4.1.2 Do ye think of perjury Of whom do ye think the same Hosea speaks when he sayes They have spoken words swearing falsly in making a covenant Hos 10.4 Do we think of the violation of holy things and places Of whom do we think the Prophet Esay speaks when he sayes Is this house which is called by my name become a den of robbers in your eyes behold even I have seen it saith the Lord Esay 7.11 I could easily tire you if I have not done so already with the odious parallels
Therefore thus saith the Lord of Hosts the God of Israel Behold I will set my face against you for evill and to cut off all Judah Jer. 44.10.11 and if ye will have particularities have we not cause to fear that he will make good upon us that fearful word I have taken away my peace from this people saith the Lord even loving kindnesse and mercies Jer. 16.5 This is an ablative judgment and that a heavy one too will ye see a positive one more heavy then that Behold I will utterly forget you and I will forsake you and the City that I gave to you and your forefathers and cast you out of my presence And I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you and a perpetual shame which shall not be forgotten Jer. 23.39 40. Will ye have the specialities of his threatned judgments Behold I will send upon them the sword the famine and the pestilence I will persecute them with all these and will deliver them to be removed to all the Kingdomes of the Earth to be a curse and an astonishment and an hissing and a reproach among all Nations Jer. 29.17 18. But enough enough of these dolefull accents of interminated judgments wherewith if I would follow the steps of the Prophets I might strike your hearts with just horrour See now the no lesse danger that arises from our selves no lesse Yea much greater for the highest revenge of all other that God takes of men is when he punishes sin with sin Let me therefore sadly and seriously tell you that there is just fear we are running apace into two woful mischiefs Atheisme and Barbarisme Oh that I were a false Prophet and did not see too much ground of this fear The multiplicity of these wild opinions in matter of Religion if there be not a speedy restraint can have no other issue but no Religion And if we should live to see discouragements put upon Learning and a substract on or diminution of the maintenance of studied Divines and an allowance of or connivence at unlettered preachers and no care taken of any but some select soules ignorance confusion and barbarity will be the next newes that we shall hear of from the Church of England Brethren if we see not these causes of fear we are blind and if seeing them we be not affected with them we are stupid Let this be enough to be spoken of those grounds that make a just time of our mourning now that our seasonable mourning may not be to no purpose let us inquire a little how this our mourning should be regulated for the due carriage and conditions of it And first for the quantity of it it must be proportioned to the occasion and cause upon which it is taken up for to mourne deeply upon sleight and trivial causes were weak and childish like to those faint hearts that are ready to swoun away for the scratch of a finger on the contrary not to mourne heavily upon a main cause of grief argues an insensate and benummed heart If it be for some vehement affliction of body good Ezekiah is a lawfull precedent for us Like as a Crane or a swallow so did I chatter I did mourne as a dove mine eyes fail with looking upward Isaiah 38.14 If it be for some great publick calamity Jeremie tells you what to do For this gird you with sackcloth lament and howl for the fierce anger of the Lord is not turned back from us Jerem. 4.8 and Gods chosen People are a fit pattern The Elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground and keep silence they have cast up dust upon their heads they have girded themselves with sackcloth the Virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground Lament 2.10 and the Prophet beats them company in their sorrow Mine eyes do fail with tears my bowels are troubled my liver is poured upen the earth for the destruction of the daughter of my People Lament 2.11 If it be for some personall and grievous sin that we have been miscarried into Holy David is a meet example for us My bones saith he waxed old through my roaring all the day long for day and night thy hand was heavie upon me my moisture is turned into the drought of Summer Psal 32.3 4. and elsewhere My sore ran in the night and ceased not my soul refused to be comforted I complained and my Spirit was over-whelmed Psal 77.2 3. Where are those pandars of sin the Romish casuists that teach the least measure of sorrow even meer attrition is enough for a penitent Surely had the man after Gods own heart thought so he had spared many a sigh and many a sobbe and many a tear that his sins cost him and so must they do us if ever we hope to recover true comfort to our souls and certainly could we be rightly apprehensive of the dread Majesty of the most high God whom we move to anger with our sin and could consider the hainousness of sin whereby we provoke the eyes of his glory and lastly the dreadfulness of that eternal torment which our sin drawes after it we could not think it easy to spend too much sorrow upon our sins Lastly if from our own private bosome we shall cast our eyes upon the common sins of the times and places wherein we live a tast whereof I have given you in this our present discourse where oh where shall we finde tears enough to bewail them now sack-cloth and ashes sighs and tears weeping and wailing rending of garments yea rending of hearts too are all too little to expresse our just mourning When good Ezra heard but of that one sin wherewith both Priests and Levites and the Rulers and People of Israel were tainted which was their intermarriage with the Heathen so as the holy seed was vitiated with this mixture how passionately was he affected Let himself tell you When I heard this thing saith he I rent my garment and my mantle and pluckt off the hair of my head and of my beard and sat down astonished untill the evening sacrifice Ezra 9.3 4. What would he have done think we if he had seen so many abominations and heard so many and soul blasphemies of his Israel as we have been witnesses of in these last times This for the quantity Now secondly for the quality of our mourning we may not think to rest in a meer sorrow in a pensive kind of sullennesse Worldly sorrow causeth death 2 Cor. 8.10 For by the sorrow of the heart the Spirit is broken Prov. 15.13 and a broken spirit dryeth the bones Prov. 17.22 And this is one main difference betwixt the Christian mourner and the Pagan both equally complain both are sensible of the causes of their complaint but the sorrow of the one is simply and absolutely afflictive as looking no further but to the very object of his grief the other is mixed with divers holy temperaments as with a meekness of Spirit with a faithul
we have but a little sand left in our glasse a short remainer of our mortal life be sure to imploy it unto the best profit of our souls so as every of our hours may carry up with it an happy Testimony of our gainfull improvement that so when our day cometh we may change our time for eternity the time of our sojourning for the eternity of glory and blessednesse Thus much for the time of our sojourning now as for the passage of this time I shall spare any further discourse of it though this is a matter well worthy of our thougts and indeed we that live within the smoak of the City have our ears so continually inured to the noise of passing-Bels that it is a wonder we can think of any thing but our passing away together with our time unless it be with us as with those that dwell near the Cataract of Nilus whom the continuall noise of that loud waterfall is said to make deaf But since we are faln upon the mention of this subject give leave I beseech you to a word of not unseasonable digression I have noted it to be the fashion here amongst you that when a neighbour dyes all his friends in severall parishes set forth their Bells to give a generall notice of his departure I do not dislike the practise it is an act of much civility and fair respect to the deceased and if the death of Gods Saints be as it is precious in his sight there is great reason it should be so in ours and therefore well worthy of a publique notification But let me tell you that in other well-ordered places where I have lived it is yet a more commendable fashion that when a sick neighbour is drawing towards his end the Bell is tolled to give notice of his dying condition that all within hearing may be thereupon moved to pour out their fervent prayers for the good of that departing soul suing for mercy and forgiveness and a clean passage of it to the approaching glory if there be civility and humanity in the former course there is more charity and piety in this but this by the way This term of our passage is but an English expression the original word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies rather our conversing passing this therefore let us meditate upon the modification of this passage of our time which is said must be in fear Fear is an unwelcome and unpleasing word and the thing more for we commonly say that onely evill is the object of fear and that whom we fear we hate and perhaps the Authours and Abettours of the uncomfortable doctrine of diffidence and uncertainty of resolution in the spirituall estate of our souls would be glad of such an overture for the maintenance of those disheartening positions which they have broached unto the World to this purpose but their mouthes are soon stopped with the addition of the name of a Father which is abundantly sufficient to sweeten this harsh sound of fear so as this clause of the Text may seem to be clearly commented upon by that of Romans 8.15 For ye have not received the Spirit of bâ—ndage again to fear but ye have received the Spirit of adoption whereby we try Abba Father There are indeed terrores Domini the terrors of the Lord 2 Cor. 5.11 For such is the dreadfull Majesty of the infinite God that his presence even when he desires to appear most amiable overlaies our weakness Jud. 13.22 yea so awfully glorious is the sight of one of his Angels that Manoah and his wife thought they should dye of no other death yea and sometimes like a displeased Father he knits his brows upon his dearest if offending children the Man after his own heart could say Thy terrors have I suffered with a troubled mind thy fierce wrath goeth over me Psal 88.15 16. which he speaks not onely out of a true sense of his own misery but as a just Type of him who in the bitterness of his agony did sweat drops of blood and with him cryed out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me who yet was heard in that which he feared heard and freed heard and crowned thus sad may be the condition of the best of Saints in the pangs of their trialls which yet can be no other then safe whiles with their Captain and Saviour they can say My God my God and may hear God say unto them Fear not for I have redeemed thee and called thee by thy name thou art mine Esa 45.1 That we may see then what fear it is which is here recommended to us as an inseparable companion in this our pilgrimage know that there is a base kind of fear incident into the worst of men yea beasts yea Devils the Devils believe and tremble saith the Apostle and we know the dog fears the whip and the horse the switch and the slave fears the lash of his cruell Master this is therefore called a slavish fear which though it be not good in it self yet may have this good effect in wicked men to restrain them from those villanies which they would otherwise commit and certainly were it not for this there were no living amongst men Earth would be Hell there is besides a distrustfull fear in unsetled hearts which is an anxious doubt lest God will not be so good as his word and perform those promises which he hath made to us this is highly sinfull in it self and infinitely dishonorable and displeasing unto God for if an honest man cannot endure to be distrusted how hainously must the God of truth needs take it that his fidelity should be called into question by false-hearted men The fear that we must ever take along with us is double A fear of reverence and a fear of circumspection the first is that whereof Malachy 1.6 A Son honoreth his Father and a servant his Master If then I be your Father where is my honour and if I be your Master where is my fear And this fear consists in our awfull and trembling acknowledgment of his dread presence in our reverentiall and adoring thoughts of his infiniteness in our humble and holy desires to be allowed of him in all things this is that which wise Solomon more then once tells us in the begining or as the word rather signifies the cheif point of wisdom and which the Psalmist truly tells is accompanied with blessedness The latter which I call a fear of circumspection is a due and tender regard to all our wayes not without an holy jealousie over our selves in all our actions words and thoughts lest we might do say or think any thing that might be displeasing to the Majesty of our God whereof Solomon Blessed is the Man that feareth alwayes but he that hardneth his heart shall fall into mischief Prov. 28.14 Now these two fears are as twins that are joyned together in the bulk of the body inseparable and are so comprehensive that
Angels present and the people shout out their Amen and shall our piety this way be lesse than theirs Surely the Angels of God are inseparably with us yea whole cohorts yea whole Legions of those heavenly soldiery are now viewing guarding us in these holy meetings and we acknowledg them not we yeild not to them such reverent and awful respects as even flesh and blood like our own will expect from us Did we think the Angels of God were with us here durst those of us which dare not be covered at home as if the freedom of this holy place gave them priviledge of a loose and wild licentiousness affect all saucy postures and strive to be more unmannerly then their Masters Did we consider that the Angels of God are witnesses of our demeanour in Gods house durst we stumble in here with no other reverence then we would do into our Barne or Stable and sit down with no other care then we would in an ale-house or Theater Did we finde our selves in an assembly of Angels durst we give our eyes leave to rove abroad in wanton glances our tongues to walk in idle and unseasonable chat our ears to be taken up with frivolous discourse Durst we set our selves to take those naps here whereof we failed on our pillow at home certainly my beloved all these do manifestly convince us of a palpable unrespect to the blessed Angels of God our invisible consorts in these holy services However then it hath been with us hitherto let us now begin to take up other resolutions and settle in our hearts an holy aw of that presence wherein we are Even at thy home address thy self for the Church prepare to come before a dreadful Majesty of God and his powerful Angels thou seest them not no more did Elishaes servant till his eyes were opened It is thine ignorant and grosse infidelity that hath filmed up thine eyes that thou canst discerne no spiritual object were they but anointed with the eye-salve of faith thou shouldest see Gods house full of heavenly glory and shouldest check thy self with holy Jacob when he awaked from his divine vision Surely the Lord is in this place and I knew it not how dreadfull is this place this is no other but the house of God and this is the gate of Heaven Gen. 28.16 17. Oh then when thou settest thy foot over the threshold of Gods Temple tremble to think who is there lift up thine awfull eyes and bow thine humble knees and raise up thy devout and faithful soul to a religious reverence and fear of those mighty and Majestical Spirits that are there and of that great God of Spirits whose both they and thou art and study in all thy carriage to be approved of so glorious witnesses and overseeres That so at the last those blessed Spirits with whom we have had an invisible conversation here may carry up our departing soules into the heaven of heavens into the presence of that infinite and incomprehensibly-glorious God both theirs and ours there to live and raign with them in the participation of their unconceivable blisse and glory To the fruition whereof he that hath ordained us graciously bring us by the mediation and for the sake of his blessed Son Jesus To whom with thee O Father of Heaven and thy co-eternall Spirit three persons in one God be given all praise honor immortality now and for ever HOLY DECENCY IN THE WORSHIP of GOD. By J. H. B. N. I Know that a clean heart and a right spirit is that which God mainly regards For as he is a Spirit so he will be served in Spirit but withall John 4.24 as he hath made the body and hath made it a partner with the Soul so he justly expects that it should be also wholly devoted to him so as the Apostle upon good reason prayes for his Thessalonians that their whole Spirit and Soul 1 Thes 5.23 and body may be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and beseeches his Romans by the mercies of God that they present their bodies a living sacrifice holy acceptable to God Rom. 12.1 Now as the body is capable of a double uncleanness the one morall when it is made an instrument and agent in sin the other naturall when it is polluted with outward filthiness so both of these are fit to be avoided in our addresses to the pure and holy God the former out of Gods absolute command who hath charged us to cleanse our selves from all filthiness both of the flesh and Spirit the latter out of the just grounds of Decency 2 Cor. 7.1 and expedience for though there be no sinfull turpitude in those bodily uncleanenesses wherein we offer our selves to appear before the Lord our God yet there is so deep an unbeseemingness in them as places them in the next door to sin Perhaps Gods ancient people the Jewes were too superstitiously scrupulous in these externall observations whos 's Talmud tells us of one of their great Rabbies that would rather suffer under extremity of hunger and thirst then tast of ought with unwashen hands as counting that neglect equall to lying with an harlot and who have raised a great question whether if any of their poultry have but dipped their beak in the bowle the water may be allowed to wash in forbidding to void the urine standing except it be upon a descent of ground lest any drop should recoyle upon the feet and in case of the other evacuation beside the paddle-staffe and other ceremonies in uncovering the feet injoyning to turn the face to the South not to the East or West because those coasts had their faces directed towards them in their devotions what should I speak of their extreme curiosity in their outward observances concerning the Law which no man might be allowed to read whiles he was but walking towards the unloading of nature or to the Bathe or near to any place of annoyance no Man might so much as spit in the Temple or before that sacred Volumn or stretch forth his feet towards it or turn his back upon it or receive it with the left hand no Man might presume to write it but upon the parchment made of the skin of a clean beast nor to write or give a bill of divorce but by the side of a running stream yea the very Turks as they have borrowed our circumcision so also religious niceties from these Jewes not allowing their Alcoran to be touched by a person that is unclean But surely I fear these men are not more faulty in the one extreme then many Christians are in the other who place a kinde of holinesse in a slovenly neglect and so order themselves as if they thought a nasty carelessenesse in Gods services were most acceptable to him Hence it is that they affect homely places for his worship abandoning all magnificence and cost in all the acts and apendances of their devotion clay and sticks please
can deny all the doubt is whether the man can know that he doth thus believe that he shall continue so to believe And why should there be any doubt in either of these I am sure for the first the chosen vessel could say I know whom I have believed 2 Tim. 1. and speaks this not as an extraordinary person an Apostle but as a Christian therein affirming both the act of his faith and the object of it and his knowledg of both for whiles he saith I know whom I have believed he doth in effect say I know that I have believed and I know what I have believed God my Almighty Saviour is the object of my faith my faith layeth sure hold on this object and I know that my faith laies undoubted hold on this happy object I know whom I have believed and why should not we labour to say so too Some things the Apostle did as a singular favorite of Heaven of this kinde were his raptures and visions these we may not aspire to imitate other things he did as an holy man as a faithful Christian these must we propose for our examples and indeed why should not a man know he believes What is there in faith even as we define it but knowledg assent application affiance receiving of Christ and which of these is there that we cannot know Surely there is power in the soul to exercise these reflexe actions upon it self As it can know things contrary to the fanatick scepticke so it can know that it knowes These inward acts of knowledg and understanding are to the mind no other then the acts of our sensitive powers are unto our senses and a like certain judgment passeth upon both as therefore I can know that I hear or that I see or touch so can I no lesse surely know that I do know or understand And the object doth no whit alter the certainty of the act whiles a divine truth goes upon no lesse evidence and assurance why may not a man as well know that he knowes a divine truth as an humane The like is to be said of those other specialties which are required to our faith Our faith assents to the truth of Gods promises what should hinder the heart from knowing that it doth assent Do not I know whether I believe a man on his word Why should I not know the same of God when an honest man hath by his promises ingaged himself to me to do me a good turne do not I know whether I trust to him whether I make use of that favour in a confident reliance upon the performance of it the case is the same betwixt God and us Only we may be so much the more infallibly assured of the promised mercies of our God by how much we do more know his unfailingness his unchangeableness Yea so fecible is this knowledg as that our Apostle chargeth his Corinthians home in this point 2 Cor. 13.5 Prove your selves whether ye be in the faith Trye your selves know ye not your own selves that Christ Jesus is in you except ye be Reprobates what can be more full To be in the faith is more then to believe it intimates an habit of faith that is more then an act Now what proof what tryal can there be of our faith if we cannot know that we have faith Surely a tryal doth ever presuppose a knowledg If a man did not know which were good gold to what purpose doth he go to the Test Now how dwells Christ in us but by Faith So may they so must they know Christ to be in them that if they have him not they are reprobates And if they know not they have him they can have no comfortable assurance against their reprobation See then how emphaticall and full this charge is He saith not Guess at your selves but prove and try your selves He saith not do ye not morally conjesture but do ye not know He saith not whether ye hope well but whether ye be in the Faith And that not of the Faith of Miracles as Chrysostome and Theophilact nor of a Faith of Christian profession as Anselme but such a Faith as whereby Christ dwells in our hearts He saith not Lastly unless ye be faulty and worthy of blame but unless ye be reprobates The place is so choakingly convictive that there can be no probable elusion of it The shift of Cardinal Bellarmine wherein yet he would seem confident is worthy of pity that the place hath no other drift but to imply the powerfull presence of Christ amongst the Corinthians strongly confirming the truth of his Apostleship whereby if there were any faith at all in them except they were given up to a reprobate sense they must needs be convinced of the authority of his Ministery for what was this to their being in the faith whereof they must examine themselves or who can think that to be in the faith is no more then to have any faith at all Neither doth the Apostle say that Christ is among you but in you neither could the not knowing of Christs presence amongst them by powerfull Miracles be a matter of reprobation so as this sense is unreasonably strained to no purpose and such as no judicious spirit can rest in and this act of our knowledg is taken for granted by him that works it in us And indeed what question can there be of this act when God undertakes it in us The Spirit of God witnesseth with our Spirits that we are the Sons of God Rom. 8.16 Can any Man doubt of the truth of Gods Testimony Certainly he that is the God of truth cannot but speak truth now he witnesseth together with us Yea but you say though he be true yet we are deceitfull and his Spirit doth but witness according to the measure of our receit and capacity which is very poor and scant yea and perhaps also uncertain Take heed whosoever thou art least thou disparage God whiles thou wouldst abase thy self he witnesseth together with us The Spirit of truth will not witness with a lying Spirit were not therefore that witness of ours sure he would check us and not witness with us Now what witness can he give with us and to us if we do not hear him if we do not know what he saies if we cannot be assured of what he testifies Let no Bellarmine speak now of an experiment of inward sweetness and peace which onely causeth a conjecturall and not an unfailing certainty The Man hath forgot that this Testimony is of the Spirit of adoption whereby we do not seem Sons but are made so and are so assured and that it is not a guess but a witness and Lastly that there can be no true inward peace out of mere conjectures Yea here is not onely the word of God for it but his seale too and not his seale only but his earnest what can make a future match more sure then hand and seale and here we have them
fastidious they may in such a case be over-ruled by just authority As for matter of censures it may not be denyed that there hath been great abuse in the managing of them both upon Ecclesiastical persons and others suspension of Ministers upon slight and insufficient causes both ab officio and beneficio hath been too rife in some places of latter times and the dreadful sentence of excommunication hath too frequently and familiary passed upon light and triviall matters How happy were it if a speedy course may be taken for the prevention of this evil In the conference at Hampton-Court a motion was strongly made to this purpose but without effect if the wisdom of the present Parliament shall settle some other way for the curbing of contumacious offences against Church-authority it will be an act worthy of their care and justice In the mean time as for this and all other Ecclesiastical proceedings it may with much facility and willing consent of all parts be ordered that the Bishop shall not take upon him to inflict either this or any other important censure without the concurrence of his Presbytery which shall be a means in all likelyhood to prevent any inconvenience that may arise from the wonted way of Judicature As for the co-assession of a Lay-presbytery in swaying these affairs of Church-government Ye well know how new it is some of you might have been acquainted with the man that brought it first into any part of this Island and what ground there is for it either in Scripture or antiquity I appeall to your judgment Surely the late learned Author of the Counsail for the reforming the Church of England although otherwise a vehement assertor of the French Discipline ingenuously confesseth that however those Protestants which live under Popish Governours have done wisely in deputing some choise men selected out of their congregations whom they call Elders to share with their pastors in the care and management of Ecclesiasticall affairs Yet those Protestant Churches which live under the government of Protestant Princes may with the safty of those respects which mutually intercede betwixt Pastors and People forbear any such deputation for as much as the supreme Magistrate transferrs for the most part to himself that which is the wonted charge of those deputed Elders concluding that those men do meerly lose their labour who so busily indeavour on the one side to disprove the antiquity of the Lay-Eldership and on the other by weak proofes to maintain clean contrary to the mind of the Apostle that the text of Saint Paul 1 Tim. 5.17 is to be understood of Pastors and Lay-Elders Thus he with what fair probability I leave to your judgment Neither is it any intention of mine to meddle with any piece of that government which obtaineth in other the Churches of God but onely to contribute my poor opinion concerning the now-to-be-setled affairs of our own What shall I need to suggest unto you the dangerous underworkings of other Sects secretly indevouring to spring their hidden mines to the overthrow both of the one government and the other whereof without speedy remedy perhaps it will be too late to complain no doubt the wisdom and authority of that great Senate whom ye also serve to advise will forthwith interpose it self to the prevention of those mischiefs which the variety of these heresies and sects though some of them cloaked with the fairest pretences threaten to this poor Church It is no boot for me to tell you that the less disunion there is the more ground of safety and that where the holy purposes of Reformation may be effected with the least change there must needs be the most hope of accordance The rest to the wise application of the powerfull and judicious It is enough for me to have thus boldly shot my bolt amongst you and to have thus freely discovered my honest and wel meant thoughts to so able judgments What I want in my poor indevours shall be supplyed with my prayers that God would be pleased to compose all our miserable distractions and to put an happy issue to the long and perilous agitations of this wofully tottering and bleeding Church and Kingdome Which the good God of Heaven vouchsafe to grant for his great mercies sake and for the sake of the dear Son of his love Jesus Christ the Just Amen Philalethirenaeus Septemb. 12. 1644. Certaine IRREFRAGABLE PROPOSITIONS WORTHY OF SERIOUS CONSIDERATION By J. H. B. of EXON 1. NO man may swear or induce another man to swear unlawfully 2. IT is no lawfull Oath that is not attended with Truth Justice and Judgement Jer. 4.2 the first whereof requires that the thing sworn be true the second that it be just the third that it be not undue and unmeet to be sworn and undertaken 3. A Promissory Oath which is to the certain prejudice of another mans right cannot be attended with Justice 4. NO prejudice of another mans right can be so dangerous and sinfull as that prejudice which is done to the right of publique and Soveraign Authority 5. THe right of Soveraign Authority is highly prejudiced when private subjects incroach upon it and shall upon suspicion of the disavowed intentions or actions of their Princes combine and bind themselves to enact establish or alter any matters concerning Religion without and therefore much more if against the authority of their Lawfull Soveraign 6. A Man is bound in Conscience to reverse and disclaim that which he was induced unlawfully to ingage himself by Oath to perform 7. NO oath is or can be of force that is made against a lawfull oath formerly taken so as he that hath sworn Allegeance to his Soveraign and thereby bound himself to maintain the right power and authority of his said Soveraign cannot by any second oath be tyed to do ought that may tend to the infringement thereof and if he have so tyed himself the Obligation is ipso facto void and frustrate COROLLARIE IF therefore any sworn Subject shall by pretenses and perswasions be drawn to bind himself by Oath or Covenant to determine establish or alter any act concerning matter of Religion without or against the allowance of Soveraign Authority the act is unlawful and unjust and the party so ingaged is bound in conscience to reverse and renounce his said act Otherwise besides the horrible scandal which he shall draw upon Religion he doth manifestly incurr the sin of the breach of the third and fift Commandements Two as undoubted Propositions concerning Church-government 1. NO man living no History can shew any well-allowed and setled Nationall Church in the whole Christian World that hath been governed otherwise then by Bishops in a meet and moderate imparity ever since the times of Christ and his Apostles untill this present Age. 2. NO man living no record of History can shew any Lay-Presbyter that ever was in the whole Christian Church untill this present Age. COROLLARIE IF men would as easily learne as Christian wisdome
can teach them to distinguish betwixt callings and persons betwixt the substance of callings and the not necessary appendances of them betwixt the rules of Government and the errors of Execution those ill-raised quarrels would dye alone Da pacem Domine Amen J. E. VIA MEDIA The way of Peace IN THE FIVE BUSY ARTICLES Commonly known by the Name of ARMINIUS TOUCHING 1. Predestination 2. The Extent of Christs Death 3. Mans Free-will and corruption 4. The manner of our conversion to God 5. Perseverance Wherein is laid forth so fair an Accommodation of the different Opinions as may content both parts and procure happy accord By J. H. D. of Worcester LONDON Printed in the Year MDCLX TO THE KINGS Most Excellent MAIESTY May it please your Majestie THere needs no propheticall Spirit to discern by a small Cloud that there is a storm comming towards our Church such a one as shall not only drench our plumes but shake our peace Already do we see the Skie thicken and hear the winds whistle hollow afarr off and feel all the Presages of a Tempest which the late example of our Neighbours bids us fear It boots not to perswade your Majesty to betake your self to your Chariot to outride the showre since your gracious compassion would not be willing to put off the sense of a common evill Rather let me take boldness to implore your Majesties seasonable prevention Only the powerfull breath of your Soveraign authority can dispell these Clouds and clear our Heaven and reduce an happy Calme In the mean time give leave to your well meaning Servants to contribute their best wishes to the common Tranquillity I see every Man ready to ranke himself unto a side and to draw in the quarrel he affecteth I see no Man thrusting himself between them and either holding or joyning their hands for peace This good however thankless office I have here boldly undertaken shewing how unjustly we are divided and by what means we may be made and kept entire A project which if it may receive life and light from your gracious eyes and shall by your Royall command be drawn into speedy practise promiseth to free this noble and flourishing Church from a perilous inconvenience Let it be no disparagement to so important a motion that it falls from so mean a hand then which yet none can be more syncerely consecrated to the service of your Majesty and this Church the mutuall happiness of both which is dearer then life to Your Majesties most humble and faithful devoted Subject and Servant JOS. HALL THE First Article OF GODS PREDESTINATION 1 WHatsoever God who is the God of truth hath ingaged himself by promise to do the same he undoubtedly hath willed and will accordingly perform 2. There is no Son of Adam to whom God hath not promised that if he shall believe in Christ repent and persevere he shall be saved We must receive Gods promises in such wise as they be generally set forth to us in holy Scriptures and in our doings that will of God is to be followed which we have expressely declared unto us in the Word of God Artic. of the Chu 17. Est generalis conditionata voluntas seu generalis promissio Evangelica c. docens promissiones divinas fic amplectendas esse ut nobis in sacris literis generaliter propositae sunt D. Overal de 5. Artic. in Belgio controversis Art 1. 3. This generall and undoubted will of God must be equally proclaimed to all Men through the World without exception and ought to be so received and believed as it is by him published and revealed Est quidem decretum hoc annuntiativum salutis omnibus ex aequo indiscriminatim promulgandum Theol. Britan. Dordrac in Actis Synodi in Thesibus heterodox Thes 1. Gratiam communem sufficientem in mediis divinitus ordinatis si homines verbo Dei Spirituique sancto deesse noluerint c. D. Overal Artic. 1. 4. All Men within the Pale of the Church especially have from the mercy of God such common helps towards this belief and Salvation as that the neglect thereof makes any of them justly guilty of their own condemnation In Ecclesia ubi juxta promissum hoc Evangelii salus omnibus offertur ea est administratio gratiae quae sâ—fficit ad convincendos omnes impoenitentes incredulos quod sua culpa voluntaria vel neglectu vel contemptu Evangelii perierint oblatum beneficium amiserint Theol. Britan. Dordrac de Art 2. Thes 5. 5. Besides the generall will of God he hath eternally willed and decreed to give a speciall and effectuall grace to those that are predestinate according to the good pleasure of his will whereby they do actually believe obey and persevere that they may be saved so as the same God that would have all Men to be saved if they believe and be not wanting to his Spirit hath decreed to work powerfully in some whom he hath particularly chosen that they shall believe and not be wanting to his Spirit in whatsoever shall be necessary for their salvation Deinde in secundo loco ut succurreret humanae infirmitati c. voluisse addere specialem gratiam magis efficacem abundantem quibus placuerit communicandam per quam non solum possint sed etiam actu velint credant obediant perseverent D. Overal Art 1. He hath constantly decreed by his Counsel secret to us to deliver from curse and damnation those whom he hath chosen in Christ out of Mankinde and to bring them by Christ to everlasting salvation as Vessels made to honour wherefore they which be called according to Gods purpose by his Spirit working in them in due season they through grace obey the calling they be justified freely they be made sons of God by adoption they be made like the image of his only begotten Son Jesus Christ they walk religiously in good works and at length by Gods mercy they attain to everlasting felicity Art of Relig. Art 17. 6. It is not the prevision of faith or any other grace or act of Man whereupon this decree of God is grounded but the meer and gracious good will and pleasure of God from all eternity appointing to save those whom he hath chosen in Christ as the head and foundation of the elect 7. This decree of Gods election is absolute and unchangeable and from everlasting 8. God doth not either actually damn or appoint any soul to damnation without the consideration and respect of sin Non ex praescientia humanae fidei aut voluntatis sed ex proposito divinae voluntatis gratiae de his quos Deus elegit in Christo liberandis salvandis D. Overal Art 1. Particulare decretum absolutum D. Overal ibid. Predestination to life is the everlasting purpose of God whereby before the foundations of the world were laid he hath constantly decreed c. Article of Relig. 17. Deus nominem damnat aut damnationi destinat nisi
stated and arbitrated by Reverend and Learned Bishop Overall on one side and our Divines on the other As for this Authour himself to prevent thy hard censure of his leaning to Arminius we referre thee to the passages which thou wilt meet with wherein he claims the liberty of reserving his own Judgement and more especially to pag. 387. where in the close of the Tract his unbyassedness is clearly professed Now Reader after thy quarrel with us taken off for our thus long withholding the good in these Remains from thee when it was in the power of our hands to give them forth for which we plead our long mocked Expectation of a promised and delayed Reimpression of all the Authours scattered Tracts to be reduced into a Volume in which these were meant to be included we dismiss thee with this blessing and we think it blessing enough May the Spirit of this Reverend Father rest upon thee and maist thou be but as Sound in thy Judgment and Religious in thy Affections as he was and as Blessed in the End as he now is The Heads of what is here Collected A Sermon Preach't before K. James at Hampton-Court in September 1624. on Philip. 3.18 19. Fol. 1 Christian Liberty laid forth in a Sermon at White-Hall 1628. on Call 5.1 Fol. 19 Divine Light and Reflections in a Sermon at White-Hall on Whitsunday 1640. on 1 John 1.5 Fol. 33 A Sermon Preach't at the Cathedral of Exceter upon the Pacification betwixt the two Kingdomes Septemb. 7. 1641. on Psalm 46.8 Fol. 48 The Mischief of Faction and the Remedy of it a Sermon at White-Hall on the second Sunday in Lent 1641. on Psal 60.1 Fol. 65 A Sermon Preacht at the Tower March 20. 1641. on James 4.1 Fol. 84 A Sermon Preach't on Whitsunday June 9. 1644. in Norwich on Ephes 4.30 Fol. 101 A Second Sermon in prosecution of the same Text in Norwich July 21. 1644. Fol. 127 A Sermon on Easter-day at Higham 1648. Fol. 185 A Sermon Preacht on Whitsunday at Higham 1652. on Rom. 8.14 Fol. 140 The Mourner in Sion on Ecclesiastes 3.4 Fol. 154 A Sermon Preacht at Higham July 1 1655. on 1 Pet. 1.17 Fol. 192 The Womens Vail or a Discourse concerning the necessity or expedience of the Close-covering of the Heads of Women Fol. 265 Holy Decency in the Worship of God Fol. 253 Good Security a discourse of the Christians Assurance Fol. 261 A plain and familiar explication of Christs presence in the Sacrament of his Body and Blood Fol. 287 A Letter for the Observation of the Feast of Christs Nativity Fol. 296 A Letter to Mr. William Struthers one of the Preachers of Edenbourgh Fol. 306 Epistola D. Baltasari Willio S. T. D. Fol. 317 Epistola D. Lud. Crocio S. T. D. Fol. 321 Epistola D. Herman Hildebrando S. T. D. Fol. 331 Reverendissimo Marco Antonio de Dom. Archiep. Spalatensi Epistola discessus sui ad Romam dissuasiva Fol. 394 A Modest Offer Fol. 336 Certain irrefragable Propositions worthy of serious Consideration Fol. 348 The way of peace in the five busie Articles commonly known by the name of Arminia Fol. 353 A Letter concerning the falling away from Grace Fol. 389 A Letter concerning Religion Fol. 401 Resolutions for Religion Fol. 405 A Letter concerning the frequent injection of Temptations Fol. 411 A consolatory Letter to one under Censure Fol. 414 A short answer to the Nine Arguments which are brought against the Bishops sitting in Parliament Fol. 417 For Episcopacy and Liturgie Fol. 421 A speech in Parliament Fol. 425 A speech in Parliament in defence of the Canons made in Convocation Fol. 428 A speech in Parliament concerning the power of Bishops in Secular things Fol. 432 Anthemes for the Cathedral of Exceter Fol. 435 OBSERVATIONS Of some Specialties of DIVINE PROVIDENCE In the Life of JOS. HALL BISHOP of NORWICH Written with his own Hand NOt out of a vain affectation of my own Glory which I know how little it can avail me when I am gone hence but out of a sincere desire to give glory to my God whose wonderful Providence I have noted in all my wayes have I recorded some remarkable passages of my fore-past life what I have done is worthy of nothing but silence and forgetfulness but what God hath done for me is worthy of everlasting and thankfull Memory I was born Julii 1. 1574. at five of the clock in the Morning in Bristow-Park within the Parish of Ashby de la Zouch a Town in Leicester-shire of honest and well allowed Parentage my Father was an Officer under that truly Honourable and Religious Henry Earl of Huntingdon President of the North and under him had the Government of that Market-Town wherein the chief Seat of that Earldome is placed My Mother Winifride of the House of the Bambridges was a woman of that rare Sanctity that were it not for my Interest in Nature I durst say that neither Aleth the mother of that just Honour of Clareval nor Monica nor any other of those pious Matrons antiently famous for Devotion need to disdain her admittance to comparison She was continually exercised with the affliction of a weak Body and oft of a wounded Spirit the Agonies whereof as she would oft recount with much passion professing that the greatest bodily sicknesses were but Flea-bites to those Scorpions so from them all at last she found an happy and comfortable deliverance and that not without a more then ordinary hand of God For on a time being in great distress of Conscience she thought in her Dream there stood by her a grave Personage in the Gown and other Habits of a Physitian who enquiring of her estate and receiving a sad and querulous answer from her took her by the hand and bad her be of good Comfort for this should be the last Fit that ever she should feel of this kinde whereto she seemed to answer that upon that condition she could well be content for the time with that or any other torment reply was made to her as she thought with a redoubled assurance of that happy issue of this her last tryal whereat she began to conceive an unspeakable joy which yet upon her awaking left her more disconsolate as then conceiting her happiness imaginary her misery real when the very same day she was visited by the reverend and in his time famous Divine Mr. Anthony Gilby under whose Ministry she lived who upon the Relation of this her pleasing Vision and the contrary effects it had in her began to perswade her that Dream was no other then Divine and that she had good reason to think that gracious premonition was sent her from God himself who though ordinarily he keeps the common rode of his proceedings yet sometimes in the Distresses of his Servants he goes unusual wayes to their relief hereupon she began to take heart and by good Counsel and her fervent prayers found that happy prediction verified to her and upon all occasions in the
remainder of her life was ready to magnifie the mercy of her God in so sensible a deliverance what with the tryal of both these Hands of God so had she profited in the School of Christ that it was hard for any friend to come from her Discourse no whit holier how often have I blessed the memory of those divine passages of experimental Divinity which I have heard from her mouth what day did she pass without a large task of private devotion whence she would still come forth with a Countenance of undissembled mortification Never any lips have read to me such feeling Lectures of piety neither have I known any Soul that more accurately practised them then her own Temptations Desertions and Spiritual Comforts were her usual Theme Shortly for I can hardly take off my Pen from so exemplary a subject her Life and Death were Saint-like My Parents had from mine Infancy devoted me to this sacred Calling whereto by the blessing of God I have seasonably attained for this cause I was trained up in the publick School of the place After I had spent some years not altogether indiligently under the Ferule of such Masters as the place afforded and had neer attained to some competent ripeness for the University my School-master being a great Admirer of one Mr. Pelset who was then lately come from Cambridge to be the publick preacher of Leicester a man very eminent in those times for the same of his Learning but especially for his sacred Oratory perswaded my Father that if I might have my Education under so excellent and compleat a Divine it might be both a nearer and easier way to his purposed end then by an Academical Institution The motion sounded well in my fathers ears and carried fair probabilities neither was it other then fore-compacted betwixt my School-Master and Mr. Pelset so as on both sides it was entertained with great forwardness The Gentleman upon essay taken of my fitness for the use of his studies undertakes within one seven years to send me forth no lesse furnished with Arts Languages and grounds of Theoricall Divinity then the carefullest Tutor in the stricktest Colledge of either University VVhich that he might assuredly performe to prevent the danger of any mutable thoughts in my Parents or my self he desired mutuall bonds to be drawn betwixt us The great charge of my Father whom it pleased God to bless with twelve children made him the more apt to yield to so likely a project for a younger son There and now were all the hopes of my future life upon blasting the Indentures were preparing the time was set my suites were addressed for the journey VVhat was the issue O God thy Providence made and found it Thou knowest how sincerely Anno Aetatis 15 o. and heartily in those my young years I did cast my self upon thy hands with what faithfull resolution I did in this particular occasion resign my self over to thy Disposition earnestly begging of thee in my fervent Prayers to order all things to the best and confidently waiting upon thy VVill for the event Certainly never did I in all my life more clearly roll my self upon the Divine Providence then I did in this business and it succeeded accordingly It fell out at this time that my elder brother having some occasions to journey unto Cambridge was kindly entertained there by Mr. Nath. Gilby Fellow of Emanuel Colledge who for that he was born in the same Town with me and had conceived some good opinion of my aptness to Learning inquired diligently concerning me and hearing of the Diversion of my Fathers purposes from the University importunately diswaded from that new course professing to pitty the loss of so good hopes My Brother partly moved with his words and partly wonne by his own eyes to a great love and reverence of an Academicall life returning home fell upon his knees to my Father and after the report of Mr. Gilbies words and his own admiration of the place earnestly besought him that he would be pleased to alter that so prejudiciall a resolution that he would not suffer my hopes to be drowned in a shallow Country-channel but that he vvould revive his first purposes for Cambridge adding in the zeal of his love that if the chargeableness of that course vvere the hinderance he did there humbly beseech him rather to sell some part of that land vvhich himself should in course of Nature inherit then to abridge me of that happy means to perfect my education No sooner had he spoken those vvords then my Father no less passionately condescended not without a vehement Protestation that whatsoever it might cost him I should God willing be sent to the University neither were those words sooner out of his lips then there was a messenger from Mr. Pelset knocking at the door to call me to that fairer bondage signifying that the next day he expected me vvith a full dispatch of all that business To whom my Father replyed that he came some minutes too late that he had now otherwise determined of me and with a respective message of thanks to the Master sent the man home empty leaving me full of the tears of joy for so happy a change indeed I had been but lost if that project had succeeded as it well appeared in the experience of him who succeeded in that room which was by me thus unexpectedly forsaken O God how was I then taken up with a thankfull acknowledgment and joyfull admiration of thy Gracious Providence over me And now I lived in the expectation of Cambridge whither ere long I happily came under Mr. Gilbies tuition together with my worthy friend Mr. Hugh Cholmley who as we had been partners of one lesson from our Cradles so were we now for many years partners of one Bed My two first years were necessarily chargeable above the proportion of my Fathers power whose not very large Cistern was to feed many pipes besides mine His weariness of expense was wrought upon by the Counsel of some unwise friends who perswaded him to fasten me upon that School as Master whereof I was lately a Scholler Now was I fetcht home with an heavy heart and now this second time had mine hopes been nipt in the blossome had not God raised me up an unhoped Benefactor Mr. Edmund Sleigh of Darby whose pious memory I have cause ever to love and reverence out of no other relation to me save that he married my Aunt pittying my too apparent dejectedness he voluntarily urged and solicited my Father for my return to the University and offered freely to contribute the one half of my maintenance there till I should attain to the degree of Master of Arts which he no less really and lovingly performed The condition was gladly accepted thither was I sent back with joy enough and ere long chosen Scholler of that strickt and well ordered Colledge By that time I had spent six years there now the third year of my Bachelarship should