and Debaucheries Hast thou a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is thy Body turned black and sallow and thy beauty faded 't is probably occasioned by a too great delight and content in admiring the excellency of thy frail Complexion Hast thou a Paralysis is the use of thy Limbs taken from thee 't is Sin is the cause perhaps thy Hands have been shut to the Poor or thy Feet swift to shed Blood or to walk in the paths of ungodliness Sin therefore is not the object of a rational man's Choice because it is the Souls Sickness and the sourse of all bodily Distempers and Diseases Seventhly Sin is not a sit Object to be elected because it is the unhappy parent of Temporal Spiritual and Eternal Death By Sin Death entred into the World Rom. 5. 12. Death is the Child of sin not of Nature Nay it destroys our Souls as well as our Bodies The Soul that sinneth shall dye the death of Nature and the death of Grace Sin occasion'd both and not only so but the death that never dies is sins Wages 't is Sin keeps in the fire of Hell to all Eternity that lays on those everlasting torments prepared for the Devil and his Angels 't is sin that not only feeds the Worm with our Bodies but the never-dying worm with our Souls likewise it kindles the slames of Lust here in our hearts and blows the coals in Hell to torment both our bodies and souls to eternal Ages and who can dwell with everlasting burnings Lastly Sin is not the object of a rational Man or good Christians Choice if put in the ballance with Afflictions and that is the last Branch of the Thesis which I laid down at the beginning of my Discourse occasioned by Elihu's Reprehension of Job under the notion of chusing wickedness rather than sufferings and this I shall demonstrate briefly and plainly and make Application to our selves My Position is this without any Equivocation it is the property of a good Man to chuse the greatest Affliction before the least Sin or there is more evil in one sin than in all whatsoever Suffering This appears in ten Particulars 1. Sin separates from God but Affliction not 2. Affliction is not Sin is evil in its self 3. A sinful state cannot but an afflicted may consist with the love of God 4. The evil of Suffering is but momentany of Sin everlasting 5. We are called to Suffering commanded by Christ to take up our Cross and to follow him but not called to sin 6. The end of Suffering is glory of Sin shame 7. By suffering we lose some outward good by Sin the soul 8. Suffering speaks our conformity to Christ Sin to the Devils 9. God is the Author of Affliction not of Sin Lastly Afflictions may be good if sanctified to us but not Sins I shall not observe a strict order as to every one of these Heads but single out the chiefest and most useful for a mixt Audience 1. To chuse Affliction is a hard choice for Affliction is not good in its self but however it may be useful to us happy is the man that endureth temptations and chastnings the Scripture speaks in many places but happy is the man that commits Iniquity hath not the patronage of one single Text David could say upon tryal Psal 119. 71. It is good for me that I have been afflicted that I might learn thy Statutes but he never said It is good for me that I have sinned unlearned thy Precepts or broke thy Commandments David pleased himself in being afflicted but not in thinking he had sinned as is visible enough in his seven Penitential Psalms and particularly if we compare the 2 Sam. 10. chap. 11. ver with Psalm 51. we shall find David reckoning his sins as the 1 2 3. greatest punishment in all the World David did not first pray that his House might be delivered from the fury of the Sword or that his Wives might not be violated before his face his Children might not be Rebells the good man passed by these things as temporal and trivial punishments but he cries upon his Sins his Sins his Sins three times in a breath Psal 51. 1. as so many haunting Devils that disturbed his rest When Paul of a Persecutor became a persecuted Apostle and was delivered from his sins he was immediately so ravished with the love of his deliverer and the joy of his deliverance that he cared not to be delivered from any misery besides he even gloried in tribulation as very useful both to exercise and feed his patience as Rom. 5. 3. Acts 21. 13. he was ready not to be bound only but dye for the Lord Jesus Sickness and Plunder Banishment and Bonds and every kind of Persecution are heavy burthens to the Flesh but light being wighed in the ballance with the pressures and miseries of Sin and Wickedness when God the Father of Spirits afflicts his Sons and Daughters he doth it that they may be partakers of his Holiness as Heb. 12. 10 11. but Sin is the sting of all afflictions 't is the suffering as Evil doers that keeps men from being Martyrs but they are happy who suffer in a good cause for even hereunto are ye called because Christ also suffered for us leaving us an example that we should tread in his steps who did no sin neither was guile found in his lips Moses well understood himself when he chose rather to be afflicted with the people of God than enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season Heb. 11. 25. So the old Martyrs Will you have a Prison or deny your Saviour and your Lord Will you burn in this fire or commit that Idolatrous Act Will you dye by a Halter or forsake the Faith Oh say they give us Prisons Fires Axes Gibbets Wheels Lyons all the Torments invented by Men or Devils rather than we will comply with Sin and Wickedness This is a Point necessary in all but especially these Times wherein men boast of a Zeal for God but not according to Knowledge and seek to avoid future possible Afflictions by present unlawful Actions As in the Duke of York's Case no man that understands the Scriptures and will not suffer his Reason by passion to be ecclipsed can believe it lawful by Gods Laws to bar any man of his Right of Succession to a Crown of all temporal Rights the greatest to avoid future probable Inconveniences in Sacred and Civil Administrations nor do I believe that any the framers of this Bill would think it a piece of Justice to have their Children or in default of Issue their Brethren in the flesh thus debar'd of their Rights for different modes of Worship from what is now Legally Established That which is simply evil may not for any good be done the Case we are now upon if Saint Paul or the Holy Ghost speaking by him understood the Christian Religion 't is not lawful to tell an officious Lye for the glory of God as Job 13. 7.
Will ye speak wickedly for God or talk deceitfully for him If not for the glory of God then not for an inferiour End not for the saving of a Life or the peace of a State Nay as Anselm Austin and others observe we should rather hazard the Salvation of mankind than commit a sin to save it If St. Paul say true and 't is hard to say he does not Damnation is due to such as do a present evil upon the prospect of a future good Rom. 3. 8. Suppose there were Presidents to justifie a Bill of this nature by the Laws of England shall humane Laws evacuate the Laws of God How often hath Jack-Presbyter the framer of that Bill pleaded that God must be obeyed rather than man c. Let him stand to his own Argument or give a Reason for the why not 't is strange to me that men calling themselves Protestants can be guilty of such Votes as these which are disowned by the true Protestant Religion by Law established in this best of Reformed Churches I am neither Papist nor Popishly affected but I assert a true Protestant Principle founded on Holy Writ that Sin is not to be elected if there be no other expedient left to avoid being Persecuted As for the distinction which some make that we may not do evil that good may come that is not for a private good end but we may for a publique benefit I have not so learned Christ I thank God and I desie the Jesuitical and Presbyterian Brotherhood to give me one Scripture Text or any one sound Reason to justifie that Distinction aforesaid and till that be done let the lawful Successor be Zealot for the interest either of Kirk or Conclave as I will not reade Mass nor swallow the Covenant so I will not Rebell against the Ordinance of God but leave God to govern his own World Who restrains the spirit of Princes and is wonderful among the Kings of the earth God who turns the hearts of Kings as the rivers of Water as it pleaseth himself the God who remembers mercy in his wrath and punisheth less than our sins deserved and this was the judgment and practice of the Saints and Churches Apostolically Primitive A Parisian Masacre a Guiscan League a Powder Treason a Covenant Reformation a Spanish Inquisition House and an English High Court of Justice the fighting for Reformation and bidding Defiance to Heaven by whom Kings reign these are Abominations so scandalous and Antichristian as do non-plus Hyperbolies and silence Invention and next to these there is scarce any thing more Criminal than the equally sinful and ridiculous Bill against the Succession of his Royal Highness in case he survive the King to the Crown and Sceptre of this Nation I wish the King may out-live his Brother and put a Period to this Question but I believe the framers of that Bill had a farther Design than the Dukes person and am clearly of opinion that there is both a Popish Plot and a Presbyterian one at this time against the Church or the King or both in Conjunction and hath been more or less so ever since the Reformation and I am heartily sorry that since Papists and Presbyterians call themselves Christians that by their Seditious Principles and Actions they should rather seem Proselytes to Mahomet the Victorious than to the Humble Innocent and Persecuted Jesus and yet that the latter Saints should be so far insensible of this as to call all that will not concur with them in their actions Tantyvies and Tories and French Pensioners is very insolently Ridiculous 2. Afflictions are the Exercises of our Graces as Faith Patience Humility and Charity in which Christ in his life who was a man of Sorrows and acquainted with Griefs was pleased to be exemplary to us and we should and ought to look up to this Jesus who endured the Cross c. Heb. 12. 2. 't is an excellent Expression of Charles the Martyr to his Son our Sovereign this advantage you have above other Princes that you have begun and now spent some years in the experience of Troubles and exercise of Patience wherein Piety and all Vertues are commonly better planted to a thriving as Trees set in Winter than in the warmth and serenity of Times He gives instance in David and Rehoboam the one prepared by many Afflictions for a flourishing Kingdom the other unsoftned by the unparallel'd prosperity of the Court of Solomon and this is indeed the great advantage of Afflictions above earthly Greatness that this last makes us Proud and Insolent and to say who is the Lord and by the other our graces are exercised and increased Ye have heard of the patience of Job saith St. James but we had never heard of any such thing but for his afflictions and we have heard of Job saith though he kill me yet will I trust in him but this was the fruit of his patience in suffering St. Stephen's Charity had never been upon Record for our imitation but for his Persecution Had the old Army of Martyrs took up Arms against their Emperors being Heathens instead of being Patient and Charitable and Humble and Meek like men that understood Christ's Religion they had neither been Presidents to us nor found for themselves a place in Heaven The assaults of Affliction may be terrible like Sampson's Lyon but they yield much sweetness to those who can encounter and overcome who know how to out-live the witherings of their Gourds without Discontent or Peevishness whilst they may yet converse with God as the Royal Martyr Charles the First rarely expresseth it 3. Afflictions wean us from the World and bring us nearer to God and Sin makes us earthly minded and makes a separation between God and us The sufferings of the Saints are the summ of Christian Philosophy they are sent to wean us from the vanities and affections of this World and create in us strong desires after Heaven whilst God here treates us rudely that we may long to be in our Country where God shall be our Portion and Angels our Companions and Christ our perpetual Feast and never ceasing Joy the entertainment of all injured and patient Sufferers Oh Death how bitter art thou to a man that is at ease and rest in his Possessions but he that is uneasy in his Body and unquiet in his Fortunes vexed in his Person and discompos'd in his Designs who here finds no pleasure or rest he will be glad and rejoice to fix his heart where he shall have the full of his desires and what can only make him partaker of real Happiness As long as the waters of Persecution are upon the earth the Allusion is pardonable I conceive so long we dwell in the Ark but where the Land is dry the Dove its self will be tempted to a wandring course of life and never return to her house of safety this blessed effect afflictions had upon Job in making him bid adieu to the World Naked came
THE Primitive Christian JUSTIFIED AND Jack Presbyter REPROVED OR A Scripture Demonstration That to be Innocent and Persecuted is more Eligible than to be Prosperously Wicked Delivered in a SERMON IN THE Abby-Church of BATH By WILLIAM GOVLDE No Flames of Civil Dissentions are more Dangerous than those which make Religious Pretentions Grounds of Factions K. CHARLES the First LONDON Printed for R. Royston Bookseller to the King 's Most Sacred MAJESTY 1682. TO THE READER THIS Discourse following had never seen the light if Jack Presbyter would have permitted the Author to be quiet the Principle here defended is a plain Truth justified by our Saviour's life That an Afflicted is more Eligible than a Sinful state which I presume was sound Primitive Doctrine and will be always so esteemed by the Regular Protestant Notwithstanding it gave great Distast to the Presbyterian Brotherhood One Gentleman would have had me Whipt for saying it was Irrational and Irreligious to commit a Sin that Good might come thereof Another told me I forgot to Preach Jesus Christ and him Crucified and yet if I mistake not he was a man of Sorrows and acquainted with grief yet knew no sin niether was guile found in his mouth A third Zeal-drunk Monseur Complimented me in the Queens Bath that Mr. Topham a Serjeant at Arms I think was my very good Friend and desired a Copy of what I delivered and that if I had any Service to him he would effectually present it my Answer was very sharp and being publickly known abroad needs not now be repeated Hang the Rascal said a fourth He Preached for a Cardinals Cap at the coming in of the Pope by which you may guess what will become of William Goulde if these Gentlemen once give Law to the Church and State But I have however printed it to shew I dare be honest and will not be huft out of my Integrity by Noise and Tumult for I have learned to fear him who can cast body and soul into Eternal torment more than a Speaker or a Pope or the Reprimand of either or both In this Discourse I affirm and will prove it that by the Laws of God by the Principles of the true Protestant Religion publiquely Professed in the Church of England the Bill against the Duke of York is not to be Justified and my Reason is grounded in the Text It is not lawful to chuse Sin to avoid being Persecuted and that Bill which renders a man dead in Law for want of Grace will bring more Confusion unto a State than it pretends to avoid and approaches too near the Doctrine of the Conclave of the Popes power in disposing the Kingdoms of an Heretique I declare my self as free from Popery as any Zealot of the Kirk and in two great Points the Regall and Episcopal Government I have a greater Value for these than any Presbyterian or Independent either Rigid or Moderate He that shall consider how the Jesuitical Party in the Conventicle of Trent undermined the Power of King and Bishop to give the Jurisdiction of both to their Lord God the Pope and compare it with the practices of the Covenanting Presbyter against Prince and Bishop to make them both Truckle under the Lay-Elder-Government will think it unreasonable to excuse these later whilst the others are subject to the Penalties of the Act of the 35th of Queen Elizabeth If Jack-Presbyter think any Injury done him I hope the two following Arguments will clear me from his Charge in all moderate Mens Judgment First The Votes of Non-Addresses to or receiving any Messages from the late Martyr'd Monarch was certainly Cozen-German if not more nearly related to the Bull of Pope Pius against Queen Elizabeth be it remembred that those Votes were never recalled till the King was under the Armed Power of the Independent Secondly The Bill against Bishops root and branch solemnly attending upon the League and Covenant was as much prejudicial to the Episcopal Government of the Church of England as any thing said or Acted against that Ancient order by any Jesuit Papists in the Council aforesaid Of these two Arguments if the Reader dares be Honest and Candid he is left to be the Judge between the Presbyterian Brotherhood and William Goulde JOB xxxvi 21. Verse Regard not Iniquity for this thou hast Chosen rather than Affliction TO have the favour to receive Commands and the Meekness to obey them is the satisfaction of Angels and it is hence concluded by Gerson the late learned Chancellor of Paris that if an Angel were to set out himself in lustre and triumph in a Magnificat it would be rather in the blessed Virgins stile as a servant of God than a Prince of so many Myriads of Subjects would the Scripture allow me that kind of Idolatry the binding my Faith or obedience to any one infallible earthly Judge or Prince were it reconcileable to my Creed it would be certainly with my interest to get into that posture of Obedience yet we find Subjection so hard a lesson to the Sons of men that neither Wrath nor Conscience can prevail with us to obey God or for his sake to submit to our lawful Superiours This is so well understood by wise Princes and States that they have invented new ways to entertain busie and active Spirits to keep them from tampering with their publique Laws and Constitutions The body of a Flea or an Ant will afford a Vertuoso many choice Observations demonstrating Problems solving Phaenomena's and drawing Schemes and Diagrams may divert your busie Mercurial Witts from making new Ideas and Platforms for Churches and Kingdoms the ground of which Aversness is the want of a right understanding of that great principle of our Christian Religion the going the high-way of the Cross to the Kingdom of heaven and hence it comes that Christianity is scandalized by Recusants Popish and Puritan who prefer Rebellion before Martyrdom and so are lyable to Elihu's reprehension for chusing iniquity rather than affliction I shall summ up the substance of the whole Text into one plain and Genuine Observation That Sin is neither eligible in its self nor to be chosen to avoid the suffering of Persecution Sin I say cannot properly taken be the object of a rational mans or true Christians choice First if considered in its self or Consequences Secondly if we look on Sin as opposite to Gods Essence and Attributes Thirdly if we consider it as the transgression of Gods Laws Fourthly as destructive to our own Souls Fifthly as the Original of all the distempers of our Bodies and Sixthly as the occasion of Death in all kinds Temporal Spiritual and Eternal as Divines distinguish according to the Scriptures Lastly which includes the second branch of the Thesis it cannot be the object of a rational choice as put in the ballance with the greatest Pressures Afflictions and Difficulties None can deny considering the present juncture of Affairs but that I have pitched on a seasonable Subject of Discourse