Selected quad for the lemma: order_n
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A30587
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Irenicum, to the lovers of truth and peace heart-divisions opened in the causes and evils of them : with cautions that we may not be hurt by them, and endeavours to heal them / by Jeremiah Burroughes.
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Burroughs, Jeremiah, 1599-1646.
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1653
(1653)
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Wing B6089; ESTC R36312
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263,763
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330
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were the worst Minister in England not wishing himselfe worse then he was but all Ministers better The fourth dividing Distemper Passion PRov. 29. 23. An angry man stirreth up strife Passion is so opposite to Union that Prov. 22. 24. the holy Ghost would have us make no friendship with an angry man First this fire of anger burns asunder the bands of union the bands of relation as Nebudhadnezzars fire did the bands of the three Children A froward heart carâ—â— not for any relations What makes divisions between husband wife brother and brother servants and Masters and Mistresses neighbour and neighbour but passionate forwardnesse Secondly this fire burns asunder the bands by which mens lusts were tyed up and kept in it sets mens lusts at liberty The lusts of mens hearts are like a bed of snakes in the cold but the heat of passion warming them causes them to crawl and hisse What a stir would the Lions in the Tower makâ— and the Bears in Paris-garden if they were let loose Passion lets mens Lion-like lusts loose Philosophers say of the inferiour Orbes that were they not kept in restrained in their motion by the Primum mobile they would set all the world on â—ire If our lower affections especially this of Anger be not kept in and ordered by Reason and Religion they wil set all on â—ire Passion makes men and women to be lawlesse boundlesse carelesse Men know not what they doe in their anger this raises such a smoak that they cannot see their way the more corrupt the heart is the greater and the more noysome is the smoke raised by this fire in the heart Put fire to wet straw and filthy stuffe oh what a filthy smoke arises Lev. 13. 25. we read of a leprosie breaking out of a burning seldome doe mens passions burne but there is a leprosie breaking out of that burning and what union can there be with such It froward people were dealt withall like the Lepers shut up from others we should have more peace Some men when once their anger is got up they will never have done we can have no quiet with them this fire in them is like that of hel unquenchable The dog-dayes continue with them all the year long Seven devils can better agree in one Mary Magdalen then seven froward people in one family If one should set the Beakons on fire upon the landing of every Cock-boat what continuall combustions and tumults would there be in the Land Those men who upon every trifle are all on a fire by their passions and what in them lies set others on fire do exceedingly disturb the peace of those places where they live those societies of which they are Their hot passions cause the Climate where they live to be like the torrid Zone too hot for any to live near them Christ is the Prince of Peace and the Devil is the Prince of divisions Hence that expression of the holy Ghost Ephes 4. 27. Let not the sun goe down upon your wrath neither give place to the devil you are loth to give place to your brother you will say What shall I yield to him you will not yeeld to him but you will yeeld to him that is worse to the Devil So you doe when you yield to wrath There are divers other dividing distempers that we shall speak to but for the present let us make use of the great mercy of God towards us that yesterday we solemnized in a publick Thanksgiving let us see how we may improve this glorious work of God for the closing of our spirits the healing our divisions It cals to us aloud to joyn oh let your hearts joyn There are 12 Arguments in this great work of God to perswade us to union First there hath appeared much of Gods presence in this his great work I will praise thee O Lord for thou hast done it Ps 52. 9. The Lord hath appeared wonderfully his naked arm hath been revealed his right hand hath become glorious in power Those who were present saw much of God in this work They send to us to give God the glory and all the Countrey about sent still to tell us how much of God they have seen in this But how is this an argument for us to unite Suppose children or servants were wrangling one with another were not this an argument to make them be quiet Your Father is here your Mr. is come will not all be whist presently God is come amongst us wee may see the face of God in what he hath done for us and shall we be quarrelling before his face But 3. days before this great goodnesse of God by speciall Order from the House of Commons there was a day set apart to humble our souls before the Lord and to seek him for this mercy that now we rejoyce in in our Humiliation was not this one great sinne we did confess our divisions did we not then acknowledg that it were righteous with God because of our divisions to give us up as a prey to our adversarieâ— Now then have not our divisions overcom Gods goodnes lest Gods goodness overcome our divisions Suppose there had been a day of Humiliation set apart to mourn under the heavy hand of God against us in delivering us up into the hands of our enemies as through his mercy we have had a day of Thanksgiving to blesse him for our deliverance from them would not this sinn have been the matter of a great part of the comfession of all your Ministers Oh the divisions that are amongst us Thou hast dealt righteously with us Our wraths were up one against another and just it is with thee O Lord to let out the rage of the Adversary upon us shall we yet continue in that after a mercy which we have confessed might justly have prevented the mercy shall we stil be guilty of that which our consciences tell us would have been the burden of them as the just â—ause of our misery if the Lord had come against us in his sore displeasure God forbid Let not that evill now be found in us that would have galled our consciences if mercy had been denyed us 3. We are delivered from being devoured by our enemies shal we now devour one another oh unworthy we of such a deliverance as this It went ill with us in the beginning of the fight but God looked mercifully upon us his bowels wrought if I come not in for their help These ungodly men wil devour my servants howsoever they have been faire to some because yet they have not attained their own ends but if they prevail here they will account all their own and then they will begin to exercise that cruelty that yet hath not been heard of but it shall not be my heart cannot bear the cries of my servants under such cruelties as I foresee Do you think this was Gods end in delivering us from being devoured of our enemies that we
that first gave him his powver shall also extend it Now the Charter by which any Church-Officer is invested with power is the Word therefore we cannot streighten or enlarge the power of a Minister otherwise then we find it in the Word for Civill power it may be streightned or enlarged as the Governours of State shall see cause because their Charter is from man it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Secondly man naturally is of nothing more impatient then to have Jurisdiction challenged over him except hee sees the claime to be right and in the point of spirituall jurisdiction man is the most tender of all because in that men come in the Name of Christ to him challenging authority to exercise the power of Christ over him not over the outward man so much as over his soule to deliver it up to Satan Surely there had need be shewne a cleare and full Charter that any men have that gives them such a power as this that men in conscience shall be bound to submit to Now then here lyes the division on sayes his Charter does extend so farre the other sayes hee does not finde it so in the reading of it There is yet a further consideration of the stretching either Civill or Ecclesiasticall authority beyond their bounds which hath been and may be the cause of much division that is their challenging and excercising power in things indifferent beyond what God hath given them for the opening of which we must know First no man either in State or Church hath any authority given him by God to command any thing meerely because hee will especially when the things concerne the worship of God Our Brethren of Scotland in their dispute against English Popish Ceremonies part 3. chap. 8. pag. 127. have this passage Princes have enjoyned things pertaining to the worship of God but those things were the very same which Gods written Word had expresly commanded when Princes went beyond these limits and bounds they tooke upon them to judge and command more then God hath put within the compasse of their power And pag. 136. of the same Booke they say The Apostle 1 Cor. 7. 23. forbiddeth us to be the servants of men that is to doe things for which wee have no other warrant beside the pleasure and will of men This was the Doctrine in Tertullians time You exercise sayes he an unjust dominion over others if you deny a thing may bee done because you will not because it ought not to bee done It is onely the Prerogative of God of Jesus Christ to command a thing because they will God hath appointed Civill Governours to be his Ministers for our good Rom. 13. Those things onely which they can doe in Gods Name as his Ministers and are for the good of a State are the object about which their power is to be exercised they are not to require a thing because there is nothing against it but because this thing is for God And Church-governours are to require onely such things as Christ requires all the exercise of their power ought to be in the Name of Christ hence not because they will or because nothing can be said to the contrary In all they require of us they must be able to say as Paul 1 Cor. 14. 38. giving rules about order and decencie If any man thinke himselfe to be a Prophet or spirituall let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the Commandements of the Lord. You will say But are Governours alwayes bound to shew a reason of their will to those who are under them or may not they obey except they know some good in the thing besides their doing the will of those who doe command them Though no Governours may command but upon reason yet the Governours of State need not alwayes discover the reasons of their commands Wee may give up our Civill liberties so farre as to be bound to yeeld to our Governours commands if wee see nothing against what they command but have cause to suppose that they see some reason that we do not which is not fit to make known to us This is grounded upon this reason that there are Arcana imperii mysteries of State that are not fit for every man to know the secrecie of them conduces most to the good of the State But it is otherwise in the matters of the Church which are spirituall there are no such mysteries in the Church wherein any members of it can be required to be active but it concernes them to understand as well as to doe All the actions of the Church as such must be done for spirituall edification now a man cannot doe a thing for the edifying his soule or the soule of another but he must understand his action and the rule of it he must see it required by the Word or otherwise he cannot expect any spirituall efficacy in what he does I may doe a thing for a civill good wherein I may trust another mans reason and this may be sufficient to attaine my end the procuring of some good meerly civill but this will never be able to reach to a spirituall good I must see the reason the ground the rule of the action my selfe I must judge by the Word that this action at this time cloathed with all its circumstances is by Christ sitted for such a spirituall good that I aime at Besides if things meerely indifferent be enjoyned then is Christian liberty violated No say some Christian liberty is in the conscience so long as a man keepes his conscience free the thing may be still indifferent to him in regard of his conscience though his practise be determined and so Christian liberty is preserved This is the put off that the Prelaticall party made use of against our Brethren of Scotland many yeeres since when they pleaded that by their usurpation Christian liberty was taken from them To that answer of the Prelates they thus reply When the authority of the Churches constitution is obtruded to binde and restraine the practice of Christians in things indifferent they are bereaved of thir liberty as well as if an opinion of necessity were borne in upon their consciences They urge that place Colos 2. 21. where the Apostle gives instances say they of such humane ordinances as take away Christian liberty he saith not you must thinke that you may not touch but touch not you must not practise not be subject to such Ordinances telling us That when the practice is restrained form touching tasting handling by the ordinance of men then is Christian liberty spoiled though conscience be left free if the outward man be brought in bondage this makes up spirituall thraldome say they though there bee no more And further the Apostle gives these two Arguments against these things First sayes he they perish in the use that is there is no good comes of them It may be you will say What hurt is there in them