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A47013 Maran atha: or Dominus veniet Commentaries upon the articles of the Creed never heretofore printed. Viz. Of Christs session at the right hand of God and exaltation thereby. His being made Lord and Christ: of his coming to judge the quick and the dead. The resurredction of the body; and Life everlasting both in joy and torments. With divers sermons proper attendants upon the precedent tracts, and befitting these present times. By that holy man and profound divine, Thomas Jackson, D.D. President of Corpus Christi Coll. in Oxford. Jackson, Thomas, 1579-1640.; Oley, Barnabas, 1602-1686. 1657 (1657) Wing J92; ESTC R216044 660,378 504

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they were imployed Now the manner of their imployment no man whose Ancestors have been Parties in this business will take upon him to justifie Nor have the posterity of such as were at that time most inriched with the spoils of the superstitious Church any great cause to rejoyce at their Ancestors easie purchase It was a practise just and right as being authorized by God himself that the Israelites should despoile the Egyptians of their costly ear-rings and gawdy jewels But albeit the Israelites who were the borrowers had better right unto them then the Egyptians which did lend them yet much better had it been if the Egyptians had either not lent them or after the lone recovered them than that they should have afforded as they did both matter and opportunity for erecting golden Calves in Israel And of two Evils it had been the lesse if the Churches Revenues had been possessed by their first Owners and not been mis-imployed in ryot luxurie and other branches of prophaneness whereby the measure of this Lands Iniquity was rather augmented then diminished however the nutriment of superstition and Idolatry was by this means abated But be our Fore-elders fault if not in alienating yet in mis-imploying Church Revenues as it may be worse then superstition equivalent to Idolatry it self it was in no wise the fault of Reformed Religion nor of the Reformers of it it must be charged upon the mainteiners of superstition For at the Dissolution of Abbies and other Religious Houses there was no Publick Reformation of Religion attempted save only the denyal or Abjuration of the Popes Transcendent Authority and Restauration of the King unto his antient and hereditary right of Jurisdiction in Causes Ecclesiastick Nor was that Boysterous King so much to blame in dissolving material Temples or houses rather abused then consecrated to superstition as he was after this Reformation if so it may be called in destroying so many living Temples of God which sought not the dissolution of his Kingdom nor any other Reformation of him and his people save only the clearing and purifying of their hearts and brests which had been consecrated unto Gods service from the infection of Romish superstition and Idolatry 2. Idolatry was that which in the first place required Reformation because it did pollute the whole service of God And I think it would be hard to finde any generation of Christian men since the first plantation of Christianity which did more abhor idols or adoration of images in the Church then the first Reformers of that Religion which we now professe did witness Those learned Homilies against the peril of Idolatry And yet would to God that many of those times of high authoritie and most zealously forward in the work of Reformation had not condemned themselves by judging the Romish Church or their fore Elders which lived in it Or that our Apostles censure of the Jewes hate or opposition unto Gentilism had not fallen as jump and fit upon the times of Edward the sixt as it did upon the times and people to whom it was first purposely fitted Our fore Elders especially the Nobilitie and Gentry of those times did abhor idols no lesse then the Jewes did and yet did commit more grosse and palpable sacriledge then the Jewes to my observation at any time had done And what could it boote them to deface Images or pull down Idols in the material Churches so long as by their very spoils they nourished that Great Idol Covetousness in their own hearts Thus to seek to inrich themselves or fill their private Coffers with the spoils of Abbies or Churches or by Tithes and offerings was but to continue the practise of the Prelacie or Clergie in destroying Parishes to erect Monasteries or demolishing lesser Religious houses to build up others more sumptuous more Luxurious 3. Many at this day there be which out of zeal complain that the Lawes against superstition and Idolatry are not severe enough and there is no moderate man unlesse of the Romish faction but could wish that such lawes as have been made for suppressing the growth of it were more constantly more impartially executed then they are In all this neither of them are to blame And yet by soliciting Gods cause and the cause of true Religion against the mainteiners of superstition and Idolatry we shall but solicite our own condemnation unless we bear a like zealous desire and good affection for the depressing and rooting out of all sacrilegious Practises or Opinions And yet seriously to attempt the Reformation of this foul sin which is Equivalent to Idolatry and hath the same burthen of Gods curse would be a matter I am perswaded as full of difficultie and danger in this Land as to attempt the defacing of Images in the Church of Rome or in any Province subject to her Jurisdiction But the further prosecution of this point would better befit an Audience of States-men of Parliament-men or Lawyers then this place or Audience Only let me forewarn you That your Predecessors have been grievous offenders in this kinde witness the short revenues or poor Endowments of your goodly Churches 4. But this sin of sacrilege or Church robbing hath been though not common to all yet in a manner peculiar to such as exercise the Co-active Power of Reformation The Clergie in whom the Power directive was did either not at all or unwillingly partake with them in this offence they have been and are the Patients that is the men which suffer wrong not Doers of wrong in this kinde And if we set aside those Points of Romish Religion which did not come to opposition or counterpoize with Power Royall or with the Interest of Potentates or commodities of private men The Reformation made by our fore elders in other points of Doctrine was judicious and Religious They did no way condemn themselves by judging the Romish Church The judgement which they exercised was the judgement of the Lord. The Reformation which they intended and accomplished was The Lords doing But many which have enjoyed the benefit of that wholsome Reformation and of true Christian libertie restored by it have not submitted themselves their opinions or Practises to the Lawes or Rules prescribed by it Many have taken upon them and yet do not only to judge or censure the Romish Church but even to condemn the Reformation of their Ancestors as if it did to this day savour of the superstition from which it was severed of those men I only speak which out of an hatred Antipathy or loathing the Romish Church do cast themselves out of all Churches and will be members of none unlesse they may be heads of some one new one of their own making or of some that hath no real patern or Module save only in their own busie heads or brains 5. To instance in some particular errors into which the very hate of Romish errors hath transported them One of the most waightie Masses of Poperie which required
Reformation and Refining was that they made The Church which in their Language was the bodie of the Clergie A body Politick or kingdom distinct from the body of the Layetie holding even Christian Kings and Emperours to be Magistrates meerly Temporal or civil altogether excluded from medling in affairs Ecclesiastick Now this being granted the Supream Majestie of every kingdom State or nation should be wholly seated in the Clergie The greatest Kings and Christian Monarchs on earth should be but meer vassals to the Ecclesiastick Hierarchie or at the most in such subordination to it as Forraign Generals and Commanders in chief are to the States or Soveraignties which imploy them who may displace them at their pleasure whensoever they shall transgresse or not execute their instructions or Commissions For this reason as in the handling of the first verses of the 13. Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans hath been declared unto you before All the disputes or Lawes concerning the Supremacie of Kings or Free States within their own Dominions were to no purpose unlesse this Root of mischief and Rebellion be taken away which makes the Clergie a body politick or Common-weal Ecclesiastick altogether distinct from the Layetie-Christian Now this erroneous Root of mischief hath been well removed by the Articles of Religion established in this Church and Land Article the 37. wherein The same authoritie and power is expresly given to the Kings of this Realm and their successors which was in use and practise amongst the Kings of Judah and the Christian Emperors when kingdoms and Common-weales did first become Christian The Law of God and of nature will not suffer the Soveraign Power in Causes Ecclesiastick to be divorced from the Supream Majestie of any Kingdom or free Soveraigntie truely Christian But what be the contrary Errors into which such as take upon them to be Reformers of the Reformation already made have run headlong Or how do they the same things wherein they judge the Romanists The Romanists as they well observe deserve condemnation by all Christian States for appropriating the Name or Soveraign Dignitie of the Church unto the Clergie and by making the Prerogative of Priests and Prelates to be above the Prerogatives of Kings and Princes The Contrary faction of Reformers not content to deprive the Clergie of those civil Immunities and priviledges wherewith the Law of God the Law of Nations and the Fundamental Law of this Kingdom have endowed them will have them to be no true members of the Common-weale or Kingdom wherein they live Or at the best but such Inferior members of the Common-weale as the Papists make the Layetie to be of the Church men that shall have no voice in making those Coercive Lawes by which they are to be governed and to govern their flocks yea men that shall not have necessary voyces in determining controversies of Religion or in making Rules and Canons for preventing Schisme I should have been afraid to beleeve thus much of any sober man professing Christianitie unlesse I had seen A book to this purpose perused as is pretended in the Frontispice by the Learned in the Laws But the Author hath wisely concealed his own name and the names of those learned in the Lawes which are in gros●● pretended for its Approbation And therefore I shall avoid suspition of ayming at any particular out of mis-affection to his person in passing this general Censure No man could have had the heart to write it no man the face to read it without blushing or indignation but he that was altogether unlearned and notoriously ignorant in the Law of God in the Law of nature and in the Fundamental points of Christianitie 6. All Errors in this kind proceed from these Originals First The Authors of them Charitie may hope by Incogitancie or want of consideration rather than out of Malice seek to subject the Clergie unto the same Rule unto which the Church was subject for the first 300. years after Christ during which time the Kings and Emperours under which the Christians lived were Heathens And whilst the chief Governours were such no Christians could exercise Coercive Authoritie as to Fine imprison or banish any that did transgresse the Lawes of God or of the Church The Apostles themselves could use no other manner of punishment besides delivering up to Satan Excommunication or inhibition from hearing the word or receiving the Sacraments Secondly the Authors of the former Errors consider not That whilest the Church was in this subjection to meer Civil and not Christian Power the Lay-Christians of what rank soever though noble men by birth were as straightly confined and kept under as were the Clergie Yea the Clergie in those times had greater authoritie over Lay-Christians then any other men had Authority much greater over the greatest then any besides the Romish Prelates do this day challenge over the meanest of their flocks But after Kings and Emperors and other supream Magistrates were once converted to the Christian Faith their dignities were no whit abated but gained this Addition to their former Titles that they were held supream Magistrates in Causes Ecclesiastick That is they had power of calling Councils and Synods for quelling Schisms and Heresies in the Church power likewise to punish the Transgressors of such Laws or Canons as had been made by former Godly Bishops or Prelates which lived under Heathen States or of such as the Bishops or Clergy which lived under their Government should make for the better Government of Christs Church Unto punishments meerly spiritual which the Apostles and Bishops had formerly only used Christian Emperors added punishments temporal as imprisonment of body loss of goods exile or death according to the nature and qualitie of the transgression But that any Laws or Canons were made by Christian Kings or Emperors for the Government of the Church or that any Controversies in Religion were determined without the Express Suffrages and Consents of Bishops and Pastors though all wayes ratified by the Soveraigntie of the Nation or State for whom such Canons were made no man until these dayes wherein we live did ever question 7. And of such as question or oppose Episcopal Authoritie in these Cases I must say as once before out of this place in like case I did If Heathen they be in heart and would perswade the Layetie again to become Heathens their Resolutions are Christian at least their conclusions are such as a good Christian living under Heathens would admit But if Christians they be in heart and profession their Conclusions are heathenish or worse For what Heathen did ever deny their Priests the chief stroke or sway in making Lawes or ordinances concerning the Rites or service of their Gods or in determining Points Controverted in Religion To conclude this Point The men that seek to be most contrary to the Romish Church and are most forward to judge her for enlarging the Prerogative of Priesthood beyond its ancient
2. 10. That Christ was consecrated to his Priesthood through afflictions And consecrated through afflictions more then ordinarie through the sufferings of death and torments more then natural to the end that being thus consecrated he might become a merciful and faithful High-Priest a Priest not only able to sanctifie our afflictions to us but to consecrate and annoint us through patient suffering of afflictions to be more then Conquerors even Kings and Priests to our God So he saith Rev. 3. 21. To him that overcometh will I give to sit with me in my throne even as I overcame and sit with my Father in his throne The other remarkable Speech of our Apostle is Heb. 5. 8. Albeit he were The Son yet he learned obedience by the things which he suffered Being infinite in knowledge as he was God and of most perfect knowledge as he was man he could learn nothing by conversing here on earth with men but only Experience of Godly grief and sorrows for our follies and impieties Such sorrows were the proper fruits of our Sins we brought them forth and he did tast the bitternesse of them This then is our Comfort That whatsoever he could learn on earth he cannot possibly forget in heaven we have and ever shall have him whilest he is in heaven and we on earth An High-Priest which will be touched with compassion of our miseries The End of his coming down from heaven and his investiture in the Form of a Servant was that he might be Consecrated through afflictions here on earth to be a merciful and faithful High-Priest and Mediator between God and man And this Consecration which was the End of his coming down being accomplished the End of his Ascension into heaven and of his Sitting at the Right-hand of God in our nature was that he might make Intercession for us out of the fresh and never failing memorie and Experience of his own former grief and sorrows for our sins And what good thing is it then which he will not ask of his Father for us And what is it that our heavenly Father for his sake will not give us Nothing in heaven or earth if we aske it in Faith and as we ought CHAP. III. In what Sense Christs Humane Nature may in what Sense it may not be said to be Infinitely Exalted The Question concerning The Ubiquitie of Christs Bodie handled 1. THe Article of Christ Sitting at the Right-hand of God in the Construction which all make of it containes The Height of his Exaltation And highly Exalted he was if not according to both Natures the Divine as well as the Humane yet as properly Exalted as he was the Son of God as in that he was the Son of David When we say he was truly Exalted and truly Humbled as he was the Son of God our meaning is That the true and Prime Subject as of his Humiliation so of his Exaltation was not only his Humane Nature but his Divine Person Yet when we say that his Divine Person was the proper Subject of his Humiliation and Exaltation we mean as we say in the Schools Subjectum Attributionis not Subjectum Inhaesionis His Humiliation and Exaltation are Real Attributes and the proper Subject of these Real Attributes was not only his Humane Nature but at the least his Divine Person Yet are they Really Attributed to him without any Real Alteration or internal change either in his Divine Nature or Person His Divine Person was not lessened in it self by his humiliation nor was it augmented in it self by his Exaltation And yet it was Really Humbled and Really Exalted 2. His Humane Nature is not only the true and proper Subject of his Exaltation but it is withal Subjectum inhaesionis His Exaltation in it or according to it includes a true and Real Change in it self not only in respect of us or of the Titles which we attribute or ascribe unto it His Humane Nature in his Humiliation was clothed with mortalitie as with its inner Garment and had the Form of a Servant as an outward Vesture upon it In his Exaltation he put off Both and clothed the Humane Nature with his Immortalitie and covered and adorned his immortal Nature with the Robes of endlesse Glorie and Majestie This Real Alteration and internal Change all do grant The Question only is concerning the Bounds or Limits of that Glorie Majestie and of other Gifts and Graces according to all which his Humane Nature was really and internally changed and Exalted But shall we take upon us to set Bounds to the Glorie Power and Majestie of the Son of Gods Humane Nature God forbid One thing it is to set Bounds unto them Another to acknowledge that they are absolutely Boundless and illimited 3. Here I must be inforc'd to touch a Sore or Breach in the Church of God which happy were it for Reformed Religion had it been made up or Cemented with their blood which first did make it or being made did seek to make it wider I mean the Bitter Controversie between the Lutheran and other German and Helvetian Churches How easily this breach concerning the Manner of Christs presence in the Sacrament might have been made up when it first appeared I refer my self to the Testimonie of Bucer in whose Judgement it was rather an Appearance only of a Breach then an Apparent Breach If the Lutherans Meaning had been as accurately examined as their words or manner of expressing it were But without diligent examination it was easie for others to mistake their meaning when as Peter Martyr a man otherwise as moderate as Learned did lay those opinions to the Lutherans charge which as his dear Friend Bucer who tendred his seven years service for making a friendly Comprimise in this Controversie seriously protests he never could perceive that any Lutheran Minister did maintain Nor did he write otherwise to Peter Martyr then out of diligent Examination of their own writings and as in his own Conscience he was perswaded for he thus subscribes another Letter of the same Purport sent to the Italian Churches Ita sentio in hac sententia opto venire ad tribunal Domini The ancient Lutherans it seems affected a language of their own or a Libertie to expresse their meditations concerning the Dignitie or Exaltation of Christs Humane Nature after another manner then the Ancients had done or many Modern Writers could well brook And this Libertie being denyed them especially by the Churches of Switzerland they sought in the issue to draw or tenter their matter to that frame of speech which they had not so warily conceived And so at length the factious industrie of some German Court-Divines did hatch a Theological endlesse quarrel out of a Verbal and Grammatical Controversie It fell out so in the opposition of these German Princes and their Courts as it doth between the Factions of rank good-Fellows and nice Precisians in Colledges or Corporations The one sort alwayes provoking
cruel for out of this compassionate affection towards dumb creatures they will be ready to kill a Christian man if he chance to wrong or harm them It is a good thing then to be zealous of good works but unless this zeal be uniform that is unless it proportionably if not equally respect good works of every kind partial or deformed zeal will bring forth compleat Hypocrisie 10. But it is an easie matter to tell men that their zeal must be uniform and unpartial the point wherein satisfaction will be desired is this How this uniformity of zeal in good works must be wrought and planted in men This men must learn from that fundamental Rule of our Saviour Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you so do to them for this the Law and the Prophets All of Us desire or wish that not this or that man only but that every man should deal justly friendly and kindly with us should think or speak well of us whilst we do or intend well should Judge charitably of us when they know nothing to the contrary and censure us charitably if we chance to do amisse The Rule of practise then in brief is this that we make payment by the same measure by which we borrow that is do good as occasions or abilities serve to every man as he is a man or our fellow creature though in more abundant measure unto such as are our Christian brethren and of the same Church and Religion To be charitable in word indeed in thought towards all even towards such as deserve punishment or censure Another branch of the same Rule is this If any have really shewed themselves kind unto us to do unto them as they have done If any have dealt rigidly or unkindly with us not to do as they have done but as we desired they should have done unto us for our desires to be well dealt withall are just but so were not their dealings with us And why should we make other mens unjust dealing with us rather then our own just desires of being friendly dealt withall the Rule of our future actions or dealings with the same men For God will judge us by the former Rule the Tenour whereof is this not to do as we have been done unto specially if we have been unjustly dealt withall but to do to every man as we desire they should have done unto us The same Rule may be yet further extended thus we must do to every man not only as we desire that every man should do to us but as we desire that God should do to us or for us So when we pray that God would forgive us our trespasses we must be ready to forgive them that have trespassed against us If we desire that God would relieve us in distress comfort us in sorrow or succour us in need we must be ready to relieve our neighbors in their distress to succour and comfort them as we are able in time of need not thus in some good measure qualified we do not pray in faith our prayers are not truly religious For as St. James tels us Chap. 1. verse the last Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this to visit the fatherlesse and widdows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted of the world CHAP. XXX MATTH 25. 34 c. 41. c. Then shall the King say unto them on his Right hand Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world FOR I was an hungred and you gave me meat c. Then shall he say also to them on the left hand Depart from me ye cursed FOR I was an hungred and ye gave me no meat I was thirstie and ye gave me no drink I was a stranger sick and in prison c. Two General Heads of the Discourse 1. A Sentence 2. The Execution thereof Controversies about the Sentence Three Conclusions in order to the Decision of those Controversies 1. The Sentence of Life is awarded Secundum Opera not excluding Faith 2. Good works are necessary to Salvation necessitate praecepti Medij And to Iustification too as some say quoad praesentiam non quoad efficientiam The Third Handled in the next Chapter Good works though necessarie are not Causes of but the Way to the Kingdom Damnation awarded for Omissions St. Augustines saying Bona Opera sequuntur Justificatum c. expounded St. James 2. 10. He that keeps the whole Law and yet offends in one Point c. expounded Why Christ in the final Doom instances only in works of Charitie not of pietie and sanctitie An Exhortation to do good to the poor and miserable and the rather because some of those Duties may be done by the meanest of men 1. THis portion of Scripture is divided by our Saviour himself into These two Generals the first A Sentence which for the matter is Two-fold Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you verse 34. c. And again ver 41. Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels But many Sentences are given which are not put in Execution Yet this being the Final Sentence that shall be given upon all men and upon all their works there is no question but it shall be put in Execution If reason grounded upon Scripture be not sufficient to inforce our belief as well concerning the Execution of the Sentence as the Equitie thereof we have an Expresse Testimonie of the Judge himself for the certaintie of this Execution ver 46. And these to wit the Goats which were placed on his left hand that is all workers of iniquitie or fruitless hearers of the word of life shall go away into everlasting punishment but the righteous into life eternal The Sentence it self hath by the perversness of mans will or by the curiositie of some wits been made the matter of many controversies especially in latter times Of which we shall deliver our Opinion as it shall fall out in the prosecution of the Positive Truth which we are bound to believe The Positive Truthes which I would commend unto the Readers meditation are Three The First That Life everlasting shall be awarded Secundum opera or that all men shall receive their final doom according to their works The second which will necessarily follow upon this That good Works are necessarie to salvation or to the inheritance of this Kingdom here promised The third That good works are necessarie to our admission into this kingdom Non tanqnam Causa regnandi sed quia Via ad regnum not as meritorious Causes for which this kingdom is by right due to us or to any but as the necessarie Way or path by which all such as seek to enter into this Kingdom must passe To begin with the First Point That the Final reward or retribution shall be Secundum opera according to mens works
to censure their forefathers to whom they owed more respect then we do to them for Idolatry prophanenesse and guilt of innocent blood and thus they censured them without dissimulation or affected zeal And yet in thus judging their Fathers they did condemn themselves for they did the same things or worse But you will say It is not possible that we should do the same things which these later Jewes did or worse things then they did For Christ cannot be buffeted cannot be spit upon cannot be crucified again Yet may we do those things and would to God oft-times we did them not which are more displeasing to him now enthroned in Heaven as King then all that the Jewes did unto him whilst he was in form of a servant here on earth It was not the evil which the Jewes did to him as to their professed enemie but the evil which was in themselves as their pride envie hypocrisie uncharitable censuring of others which made him that made them to be their enemie and him that had been their Protector to fight against them These are diseases not Proper to the Jewish Nation but Epidemical and common to all Nations and places The matter of them as our Apostle in this Chapter disputes is alike common to all But the Jewish Nation came to their Crisis at Christs first appearance in humilitie Our Critical Day is not to be expected until his second appearing in Majesty and glory Then nothing which lies hid in the heart but shall be laid open then and not before will all enmitie betwixt the serpent and the womans seed appear And in that day it shall be more tolerable for them which crucified him then for us unlesse we take warning by Gods known Judgements upon them and their seed to avoid those practises and accustomances which wrought and swayed them by means secret and unsensible to exercise enmitie and hostilitie against their Lord their Maker and Redeemer 14. And here my purpose was to have used the former Parallel betwixt the Ancient Jewes which killed the Prophets and the later which condemning them for so doing did not withstanding kill our Saviour as a Map whereby to shew you in what particulars many in this Land who not content with that discreet and judicious Reformation which is contained in the publick Acts and Liturgie of our Church by their solicitous care and anxious zeal to be extreamly contrary unto the Romish Church almost in all things do by judging her and her children condemn themselves doing the very same things or worse things then she doth and help to make up that measure of iniquitie upon this Land which the Romish Religion whilst it was here authorized had left unaccomplished But for this point and others which serve for use and application of the general Doctrine hitherto delivered this present time will not suffice The Application shall be brief Take heed you measure not your love to truth by your opposition unto error If hatred of error and superstition spring from sincere love of truth and true Religion the root is good and the branch is good But if your love to truth and true Religion spring from hatred to others error and superstition the root is naught and the branch is naught There can no other fruit be expected but hypocrisie hardness of heart and uncharitable censuring others CHAP. XXXVIII The Second Sermon upon this Text. ROMANS 2. 1. Therefore Thou art inexcusable O man c. 1. THe Points worthy our Consideration are Three First How our Fore-elders in the beginning of Reformation and many amongst us since the Reformation established did or do condemn themselves whilest they judge the Romish Church in particulars worthy of Condemnation by all Secondly How the Romish Church in General and many professing Reformed Religion condemn themselves even whilst they judge the Iews in Points most gross and damnable Thirdly How not the Romish Church only or the Jewish Synagogue but many amongst Professors of true Religion men in Opinion Orthodoxal evidently condemn themselves whilest they judge or censure the very Idolatry of the Heathen The Points for which one Church or Nation one sort of People or generation of men may judge another either concern matters of Manners and practise or matters of Opinion and doctrine or matters mixt that is Errors in Opinion which induce misdemeanors in practise If Errors there be any which do not draw after them dangerous or ungodly Practises these rather deserve pity or toleration then Rigid Censure But Doctrinal Errors which induce lewd practises are more dangerous more to be detested then the most gross or lewdest practises into which some men fall being not mislead or drawn into them by Plausible Errors or false doctrine Practises how gross soever if they want the supportance or Countenance of Doctrinal Rules pollute the souls consciences of the parties peccant they are not so powerful to seduce others But Misdemeanors or perverse Affections being coutenanced by Pretence or Colour of sacred Authoritie are most infectious Briefly there is no false Doctrine but it is an Inconvenience whereas grosser misdemeanors without error in doctrine are but Mischiefs And it is a Maxim received by the most sage and prudent that Better is a Mischief then an Inconvenience or at least an Inconvenience is worse then a Mischief But worst of all is an Inconvenience which draws Mischief after it and such is every Error in Doctrine which inclines or disposes men to evil practises or which doth leaven or malignifie the affections of the heart naturally bad or but indifferent That which our Fore-elders did most condemn in the Romish Church or at least that which they went about to reform was the Excessive Wealth which the Church or Clergie had gotten into their possession with the Transcendent Authoritie of the Papacie by which they sought to detain what they had gotten or to gather more Whatever the manner of getting their wealth or Revenues was the manner of using or imploying them was exceeding bad and did deserve yea require a Reformation Our Fore-elders did well in judging the Clergie for abusing Revenues sacred to the maintenance of idleneness superstition and idolatry But would to God they had not condemned themselves by judging them or that they had not done the same things wherein they judged them Happy had it been for them and for their posterity if those large Revenues which they took from such as abused them had been imployed to pious uses As either to the maintenance of true Religion or to the support of the needie or to prevent oppressing by extraordinary Taxes or the like This had been an undoubted effect of pure Religion and undefiled before God But it was not the different Estate or condition of the parties on whom Church Revenues were bestowed that could give warrant unto their Alienation or which might bring a blessing upon their intended Reformation but the Uses unto which they were consecrated or the manner how
bounds do the same things she doth by Equivalencie and run to the same End by a quite contrary way The Romish Church it cannot be denyed makes her Popes and Prelates with other Pillars of their Church plain Idols They which out of an undiscreet and furious zeal seem most to abhor this kind of Idolatry commit Sacrilege and rob God of his honour as the Romish Church doth And he that robs God of his honour doth the very same thing and no other which an Idolater doth Now they are said in Scripture to rob God of his honour and to commit an abomination more then heathenish for the heathen do not spoil their Gods which defraud him of his tithes offrings which were due unto the Priest for his ministration and service in Gods House But they rob God of his honour more immediately and more directly which despise or contemn his Embassadors not in word only but in taking that Authority from them which he hath expresly given unto them and which is worst of all in seeking to alienate it unto them over whom he hath in matter of salvation appointed them Guides and Overseers That Precept of our Apostle I am sure will stand good when all Laws or Intendments of Laws to confront it will fail Obey them that have the rule over you and submit your selves Heb. 13. 17. What Rule doth he mean meerly Civil or Temporal No! What then Ecclesiastick Not that only But the Rule of Government spiritual such as is proper to the Bishops of the Church For so it follows for they to whom you are to submit your selves watch for your souls as they that must give an accompt and you are therefore to obey that they may do their office with joy and not with grief for that saith the Apostle is unprofitable for you Now that in this plenty of preaching and frequencie in hearing The most hearers profit so little in the School of Christ the true Reason is for that men do not submit themselves unto their Pastors in such sort as they ought but think it his Duty or Office only to preach and their duty only to hear not to be Ruled or Governed by him whereas the ones preaching is vain and the others hearing is vain unless this duty of obedience be first planted in their hearts The Pastors Grief which ariseth from neglect or contempt of this Duty will prove in the issue the Peoples Curse 8. But the main stream of Popery from which the name of Babylon is derived unto Rome was the Absolute Infallibilitie of the Romish Church Representative The branches of this supposed absolute Infallibilitie were Two The First That the sense of Scriptures which that Church doth maintain or avouch concerning Faith or Manners is alwayes Authentick undoubted and true But whereas many Points as well of Doctrine as Practise concerning Faith and Manners were in that Church established by Prescription and Use without so much as any Pretence of warrant from Scripture They were inforced in the Second Place to maintain That the Unwritten Traditions of the Church were of equal Authoritie with the Scriptures and that the present Church was as Infallible in her Testimony of the One as in her Judgment of the other The Infallible Consequence of which supposed Infallibilitie is This That the people were absolutely to believe whatsoever that Church should propound unto them as a Point of faith or practise commendable and to abjure whatsoever that Church should condemn for heresie or ungodliness By Absolute Belief or obedience they intend a belief or obedience not only without Condition or scruple in the first undertaking but without Reservation of appeal upon any new discovery of dangers unseen unsuspected in the first undertaking The Churches Authority once declared was in their Divinity sufficient to quell or put to silence all succeeding Replies or mutterings of Conscience Both these dangerous Errors were well Reformed The later stream or puddle of Traditions in a manner drained by this Church and State For every Bishop at his Consecration doth solemnly promise or vow not to propound any thing to the people as a Point of Faith unless it be either expresly conteined in the Scripture or may be thence deduced by necessary Inference To bind or tie all Bishops thus solemnly unto the observance of this Rule the wisdom of those Times had these Reasons Not only to curb or restrain the licentious Abuse of Bishops former Authoritie but because they knew that the people were in many Cases concerning the service of God and other Christian duties bound to yeeld more credence and obedience to their Bishops and Pastors then unto men not called to Sacred or Pastoral Function It is One Thing to believe any Doctrinal Proposition as A Point of Faith necessary to salvation Another to believe it so far as we may safely adventure upon any practise or duty injoyned by superiors That is to believe it not Absolutely but Conditionally and out of such belief to obey them not absolutely but conditionally that is with reservation of freedom or libertie when either the truth shall be better discovered then now it is or greater dangers appear then for the present we do suspect The Obedience which we give unto Superiors may be Ex Fide of Faith albeit the points of doctrine or the perswasions out of which we yeeld this obedience be not De Fide No points of Faith or necessary to salvation 9. But a great many well-meaning men there were who shortly after this happy Reformation could not content themselves to stand upon such sure Termes of Contradiction unto the Romish Church as the first Reformers had done but sought in this Point which was indeed above all others to be abhorred to be most extremly Contrary unto her Wherein then doth that Contradiction to the Romish Church wherein the first Reformers of Religion did entrench themselves and wherein doth the Extream Contrarietie whereunto others more Rigid Reformers if they could have effected their Projects would have drawn this Church and Land consist The Romish Church as you heard before did make Unwritten Traditions a Part of the Rule of Faith as soveraign as the written Word of God and did obtrude those observances which had no other warrant then such Tradition as altogether necessary to salvation The First Reformers of this Error were contented to contradict them only in this And their Contradiction is expresly mainteined partly in the Articles of Religion partly in the Book of Consecration of Bishops The Contradiction is This That all things necessary to salvation are contained in Scripture which is all one as to say That the Scripture is the only Rule of Faith Yet did they not for all this utterly reject All use of Tradition or Ceremonies as you may find expressed in the thirty fourth Article in which though Rites and Ceremonies or other customs of the Church be not injoyned in particular as they take for granted by God himself