he that trains not up his Child to God for whom does he train him up but the Devil For is there any Mean between What Complaint God taketh up against Israel about their giving up their Children to Moloch may he not take up against Thousands in the World upon this Account Thou hast taken my Children and delivered them up to make them pass through the Fire That is the Children which I have given thee and which should have been mine He warned Men against Lying and False-speaking by the Example of Ananians and Sapphira that were struck dead for it Which he called a fearful Judgment set up as a Pillar of Salt at the very entrance of the Gospel into the World that Men might see and hear and fear and not dare to Lie under the Gospel of Truth especially not to the Spirit of Truth And if you look upon Ananias his doing you see him Deceiving and Lying and if you observe Peter's Words you may see he referrs his Lying and Deceiving to their proper Original Viz. That they both are the Work of the Devil Why hath SATAN filled thy Heart to lye and filled thy Heart to deceive and keep back part of the Price of the Land That if you will trace his Wickedness to the Spring-head his Intent to deceive made him lye and his base Covetousness made him deceive and the Devil caused all He gave this Rule concerning Apparel and for the avoiding Pride in what Men put on God allows Men to wear good Cloths according to their Quality and Degree but if Pride be there it is beside his Allowance God allows us Cloths to keep us warm He allows us Cloths to adorn our Rank and Quality but if we lace and trim our Wear with Pride there is a Leprosie got into the Warp and Woof that rots all God appointed the Jews to wear Fringes upon their Garments to make them still to be remembring the Law I am afraid the Fringing and Finery of two many have a clean contrary Effect It doth but puff them up and make them proud And again If any should ask What Cloths and Hair and Garb may I wear this may be a very direct and satisfactory Answer Wear what you think good so it be without Pride And this I believe will shut out of Doors 1. Wearing a Garb above one's Rank and Degree For I question whether one can wear a Garb above his Rank without Pride And 2. Affecting foreign and strange and few fangled Fashions For tho' it may be possible for a Person to be in the Fashion without Pride because he would not be hooted at for Singularity yet certainly it is hardly possible to affect new fangled Fashions without Pride It is one thing to put on the Fashion to avoid Reproach and another thing to dote upon Fashions and to make them Bravery He that makes his Cloths his Bravery it is very suspicious he makes them his Vainglory and he that dotes on the Fashion it is to be doubted he dotes on the Pride of the Fashion THESE Instances are enough to shew what a plain but fruitful Method of Teaching and Preaching Dr. Lightfoot took But he also took care of his People's Principles to preserve them from warping from the National Church as hath been taken notice of before and from the Church consider'd as Protestant Of which I shall proceed to a few Instances To arm his Auditors against Popery thus he taught them Our Histories tell us That when Austin the Monk came hither into Britain from the Pope as to settle Religion and when some of the British Christians consulted with a grave prudent Man whether they should close with him and submit to his Rules Yes saith he if he be humble do But if he be proud he is not of God Would you take a Measure of true Religion no surer Token than these two Humility and Charity They talk they will prove the Truth of their Religion by Antiquity Universality and I know not what Let them shew it by the Humility and Mercifulness of it and we shall desire no more But I doubt that Religion that teacheth the Merits of a Man's Works is too proud against God to be the true Religion and that that teacheth that the Pope is above all Princes is too proud against Men. And I doubt that Religion that stirs up Mâ—n to murder Princes Nobles People that will not be of that Religion is not the true Religion I am sure Christ and his Apostles were never either of such Pride or Cruelty but further from these Principles of Rome than it is 'twixt Rome and Jerusalem And as he warned them against Popery in general so particularly Against a blind Zeal Zeal without Knowledge or Zeal in a wrong Way It is good always to be zealous in a good Matter but mischievous to be zealous in a bad There was a great deal of Religious Zeal for those Parents to offer their Children to Moloch to be burnt alive in his Arms in Devotion to that God of theirs But it was blind Zeal mad Religion distracted Devotion Their God was the Devil St. Paul in one Place saith That in Zeal he persecuted the Church But in another Place he saith He was exceeding mad against the Church That Zeal of his was mere Madness It was blind and mad cared not whither it went nor what it did Rom. x. The Jew hath Zeal but without Knowledge and that made him so to set himself against the Truth You remember that They that kill you shall think they do God Service It was great Zeal but as blind as a Beetle It runs upon it cares not what as a blind Man runs upon every Post and falls into every Pit And against Cruelty The Papists plead stoutly that theirs and none but theirs is the true Religion If that should be tryed by this very Touchstone Is that can that be true Religion that makes it Religion to murder Men None of you but have heard of the bloody Days of Queen Mary and how many poor innocent holy Men were then put to the Fire and there ended their Lives And this forsooth done by the Papists out of Zeal for Religion Just such a Religion as they were spurred by that offered their Children to Moloch For compare the things together and what can be liker Those Wretches out of that Devotion and Religion as they took on them made their poor innocent Children pass through the Fire a Sacrifice to Moloch These Wretches out of that Devotion and Religion as they took on them made these poor innocent Souls pass through the Fire a Sacrifice to the Pope The Cruelty much alike the Manner of the Death they put them to much alike And were they not Religious think you much alike Such a Sacrifice to their Moloch would they have offered of innocent ones when they would have sent away our Parliament out of the World in Fire and Gunpowder and this forsooth out of Zeal to Religion
a Physician snaps him up and devours him How miserably and unexpectedly was that poor Man surprized So how does the unhappy Soul we are speaking of find it self surprized when it suddenly finds it self in the Clutches of the Great Red Dragon ready now to be devoured by him VII A Meditation upon the Widow's Mite OUR Saviour sitting in the Second Court of the Temple called commonly by the Jews The Court of the Women but by the Gospel The Treasury because there stood the Thirteen Chests into which the People put their Freewill Offerings sees the rich Men casting in largely and of their Abundance But there comes a poor Widow and casts in a poor Pittance Two Mites that make but One Farthing a despicable Gift and such an one as those rich Men would make a Puff at to see such a poor Business offered And as God in another Case Mal. i. 8 offer such a Pittance to a great Man how would he scorn it But God seeth not as Man seeth God weigheth not as Man weigheth but he seeth and weigheth the Mind and Heart And our Saviour seeth that this Woman had put her Heart into the Treasury with her two Mites that she had cast in her Heart and her whole Living with her Farthing in the Chest she had chosen to put it in and accordingly he weighs values and estimates her Offering according to the large Heart wherewith she had given it as the largest Gift that was given nay larger than all the Gifts that were given Of a Truth I say unto you that this poor Widow hath cast in more than they all Luk. xxi 3 A Woman to outvye all the Men in her Offering A Widow all the great married Dames and Ladies and a poor Widow all the rich and wealthy Ones with all their Abundance It is very fortunate for Women to bear the Bell for Piety and Devotion in the Holy Story and none to go beyond them in Zeal and Religion or rather they to go before all The Virgin Mary Martha Mary Magdalen Joanna Susanna the Syrophaenician Woman with her great Faith and this poor VVidow with her great Offering That as Peter's Zeal and Earnestness in promoting the Gospel is more especially recorded in the Acts of the Apostles to give Evidence and Assurance of his Recovery out of his great Fall in denying his Master So the noble Zeal and Piety of several VVomen is recorded in Holy VVrit to be an Evidence of the Recovery of that Sex out of its foul Guilt of bringing Sin into the VVorld and being first in the Transgression As the Apostle speaks something towards such an Observation 1 Tim. ii ult Adam was not deceived but the Woman being deceived was in the Transgression Notwithstanding she shall be saved by Childbearing i. e. by the Birth of Christ a Child born to be a Saviour Tho' Pangs in Child-bearing were laid upon her as a sad Punishment for her Transgression VVe might enquire whether this VVidow were a true Believer or whether she were still in the Jewish Religion and Belief but only more sincerely Pious and Religious in that way than others were And the Reason of this Enquiry is that if she were a true Believer or had received the Gospel it may seem strange that she would contribute to the Jewish Service And if she were not a true Believer it may seem strange that Christ should give such a Testimony to her Offering if it were not offer'd in Faith Whether she were the one or other this Act of hers was certainly a Pious Act. For observe with me these few things I. Observe that all the Offerings or Gifts that were thus put into the Temple-Treasury were laid out for the maintaining the Service of the Altar and Temple To buy Wood to maintain the Fire of the Altar to buy Sacrifices for the Altar Salt for the Sacrifices Oil for the Lamps Wine for the Drink-Offering c. VVhatsoever was offered in the Temple went to the maintaining the Service and Religion of the Temple II. Observe that the Service and Religion of Temple and People was now grown exceeding Corrupt and many things of Humane Invention and Tradition were added to God's Institutions there So that our Saviour sticks not to say of the Temple that they had made it a House of Merchandize nay a Den of Thieves and himself with a Whip drives Buyers and Sellers out of the Temple And yet III. Observe that Christ himself contributed to the Maintenance of the Service of the Temple tho' such Corruption crept into it For that Tribute-Money that is demanded of him Matth. xvii 24 and which he works a Miracle to pay finding the Money in a Fish's Mouth was the Half Shekel that every one was bound to pay Yearly and the Money went towards buying the Sacrifices for the Altar and for the maintaining of the Service there And as himself did in that Payment contribute to that so he commends this Widow who in her Gift did shew the like Contribution to the same thing For IV. Observe that Good might be gathered out of the Service there tho' such Corruptions were crept in because God's Institutions were there and he had set up his Candle there his VVorship which he had not taken down And every Humane Invention doth not presently destroy a Divine Institution tho' it doth pollute it And the seven Churches of Asia are Golden Candlesticks still tho' God find foul Corruption in all of them They that will pay nothing to our Churches that will not come at our Churches nay will not abide to be buried in our Church Yards do they see any abominable thing in the Service of our Churches worse than the Corruptions that were crept into the Jewish Religion worse Superstition worse VVill-worship worse Corruptions If they do let them shew it if they do not why do they so despise our Churches and the VVorship there VVhen Christ himself refused not to be present at the Temple and to contribute to maintain the Service there Let me ask them and the negligent Comers to Church tho' they do not quite refuse it do they think that our Saviour ever let a Sabbath-day pass in all his time while here but he was present at the Public Service either in the Temple or in the Synagogue Look the Gospel thro' and see by the Current of the Story there whether ever he absented himself from the Public Congregation on the Sabbath-day Read that Luke iv 16 to spare more He came to Nazareth where he had been brought up and as his Custom was went into the Synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up for to read It was his Custom to go to the Synagogue to the Public Service and Congregation on the Sabbath-day and he never fail'd of it And he stood up for to read in his own Town Synagogue as owning himself a Member of that Congregation For it is not recorded that he read in any Synagogue beside It was his Custom to go to
Subscription to the Orders of the Church which a great many of them had refused But Lightfoot honestly said that this was the Question betwixt our Saviour and the Woman of Samaria And if she had directly asked him whether the Church of the Jews were the true Church he would doubtless directly have answered it was For otherwise God had no Church in the World And yet was the Church of the Jews at that time in a worse Condition than any of them could think the Church of England then was 2. He was no Innovator He sat indeed in the Assembly of Divines called together by the Parliament to consult upon Matters of Religion and he came thither in the simplicity of his Heart contributing his Service towards the Correcting of supposed Abuses in Religion But still he had a respect to the good Laws of the Church and disliked and declared against many Propositions brought in for Reformation and opposed several things attempted to be introduced not only by Independents and Antinomians but such as were for transcribing the Model of the Scotch and Geneva Discipline In their settling a Set Form for Religious Worship the Parliament having laid aside the Common-Prayer-Book Lightfoot had an Eye to former Rubricks and Canons To give one Instance hereof When in the Directory for Baptism the giving Ministers warning when any Children were to be Baptized was omitted he moved that that might be taken order for seeing that in our old Rubrick said he it is enjoyned that warning should be given the Night before And now he shewed there was more need since the Minister by the Directory was to make an Exhortation and to give some Instructions concerning Baptism Whereupon this Clause was added Warning being given to the Ministers the Day before Again he utterly disliked the bringing in a Rank of Women for Officers in the Church viz. Widows Which some had urged grounding themselves upon that of the Apostle Let not a Widow be taken into the number under Sixty Years old Where Lightfoot shewed that for that very thing he could not be of that Opinion For that it was contrary to the Old Testament where the Officers of the Temple were to be dismist at Fifty Years Old And when Goodwin answered that the Priests indeed were discharged of their Service at those Years because of the Burthen of their Service As particularly carrying of the Ark and the Labour of Sacrificing Lightfoot replied that the Ark was fixed after Solomon's time So that there was no more Occasion to carry that Neither were the Sacrifices any such Burthen the Courses of the Priests were so full as that no less than Eighty opposed Vzziah And he shewed it from Josephus and that there were Five Thousand apiece at least in each Course and that their Service was but one Week in half a Year And therefore they could not be overladen with Work Nevertheless when after much Debate it was brought to the Vote whether Widows were Church Officers it was voted in the affirmative Yet only by one Voice Lightfoot being then absent which he calls in his Journal His Misfortune and adds that the Proposition was utterly against his Mind and far different from his Judgment 3. He set himself especially against such as made use of Religion to supersede the Duties of Morality and who upon pretence of higher Attainments in Christianity overlookt Truth Honestly and Righteousness He could not bear such as made Religion a Pander to Sin And such Sects there were that shewed their Faces in his Time There were some that had refined Religion to that Degree that they went all upon Illuminations Revelations and Spiritual Raptures and talked of nothing but of their being acted by the Spirit of God and doing all by some mighty Influences of that Spirit Poring so much upon these Fancies that they measured their own and others Religion according as they were endued with these Enthusiastical Flights In the mean time made little or no account of Moral Duties and were much addicted to Unpeaceableness Covetousness Fraud Lying Deceiving Slandering and such like There was one considerable Sect that then appeared and got much ground which was known and distinguished by this Doctrine That Christians were not obliged by the Moral Law Against this Party great complaints were at length brought into the Assembly of Divines many of whom among which was our Divine saw well to what a Decay all true Religion would soon come if Men of this Opinion were tolerated For to shew them a little to the present Age these were Doctrines contained in the Books or Speeches of three of them collected by Dr. Temple and offered to the Assembly as I find them in Lightfoot's Journal 1. That the Moral Law is of no use at all to Believers No Rule to walk by nor to examine their Lives by And that Believers are freed from the Mandatory Power of it 2. That it is as possible for Christ to Sin as for a Child of God 3. That a Child of God needs not nay ought not to ask Pardon for Sin and that it is no less than Blasphemy to ask Pardon for our Sin And one of them being told that David asked Forgiveness of Sins it was answered it was his Weakness 4. That God doth not chastise any of his for Sin Let Believers Sin as fast as they can there is a Fountain open for them to wash in That not for the Sin of God's People but for Swearers and Drunkards the Land is punisht 5. That there ought to be no Fasting Days under the Gospel and Men ought not to afflict their Souls no not in a Day of Humiliation And it being asked one of them whether he Fasted in obedience to the Civil Command he answered That were to be the Servants of Men. 6. That this Doctrine is false If you Fast and Pray and Humble your selves unto God then God will turn away his Judgments Yea if you Pray by the Spirit you are not hereupon to expect deliverance from Judgments 7. That when Abraham in outward appearance seemed to Lye in his Distrust Lying Dissembling and Equivocating even then truly all his Thoughts Words and Deeds were perfectly Holy and Righteous from all Spot of Sin in the sight of God 8. That if a Man by the Spirit know himself to be in a State of Grace though he commit Murder or Drunkenness yet God doth see no Sin in him Lightfoot with divers others of the soberer sort in the Assembly were hugely concerned at these Men and their Doctrines Because they well saw and urged to the rest how these Opinions opened a Gap to all manner of Licentiousness struck at the very obedience due to the Civil Magistrate horribly scandalized all the Doctrine of Free-Grace and Justification endeavoured to blast all Faithful Ministers calling them Legal Preachers And that this Sect was the more dangerous because their Preachers crept into the Favour of the Souldiers And it was observable that when the Definition
the true Cause that he was so serious earnest and diligent in the Assembly of those Divines that he was called to sit with For whatever By-ends they were convented for and divers of them perhaps drove at yet his Designs were only what that Assembly was given out to be called for Viz. The reforming of Religion And he never one Day failed of being present at the Assembly from the first Session thereof but ever shewed himself there to discharge this Trust of Religion till Jan. 22. 1643. that is about Five Months that being the first time he went down to Munden to enter upon his Living It was from this Principle that he was extremely concerned once when certain blasphemous Persons were brought before the Judges who sent to the Assembly to know their Judgments in a Point of Blasphemy Which was That one Jane Stretton had said that Christ was a Bastard And one John Hart a Soldier said commonly Who made you My Lord of Essex Who redeemed you Sir William Waller Who sanctified and preserved you My Lord of Warwick The Answer the Assembly return'd was That they had horribly blasphemed and desired exemplary Punishment might be shewed upon them And besides Lightfoot and one or two more moved that such an Occasion being offered they should present a Request to the two Houses that strict Laws and Penalties should be published against Blasphemy which did increase And a Committee was chosen for that Purpose And it was but a little after that the Lord Pembrook Lord Admiral came into the Assembly being sent from the House of Lords to hasten them in settling the Government of the Church for that Opinions grew very many and blasphemous I might also add That Mr. Chambers one of the Assembly related to them some Blasphemies of one As on Gen. vi 6 he said that it was untrue that God repented he made Man That the Soul dieth with the Body and all things shall come to an end but God That Christ came to live Two and Thirty Years and nothing else that he knew That God loves any Creature as well as Man That we are not to be saved by that Christ that suffered at Jerusalem but by a Christ formed in us c. Whereupon it was ordered presently that this should be brought to the Lords and they desired to send to apprehend them It sprang from the same Principle of his awful Apprehension of God's Honour that when the Assembly had finished the Directory and read it over in order to the last Hand Lightfoot observing that the singing of the Psalms was quite left out he moved again and again that it might be put in and that such a material Part of Divine Worship should not be omitted And at length it was done accordingly He had a great Concern at the Atheisticalness of the Age when Men began to shake the very Principles of Religion and strove to make themselves and others believe no Existence of Spirits nor any Being after Death the great Curb to restrain the wicked Excesses of evil Men. To this I attribute the Pains he took to transcribe with his own Hand a notable Relation of a Spirit appearing in Driffield in Yorkshire that was sent to Mr. after Dr. Ezekiah Burton then Fellow of Magdalen College in Cambridge by Mr. Moore formerly Fellow of the said College and Mr. Blackwell another Minister as it seems who took the Relation from the Woman 's own Mouth to whom the Spirit often appeared And seeing our Divine took the Pains to transcribe it for his own use I may be pardoned if I offer it here to the Public from his Manuscript I suppose you have heard the News of a Spirit appearing to a Woman named Isabel Billinger at Driffield in this County of York I had this Relation be it true of false from the Woman her self It is too long to write it to you as I did it from her but the chief things are these That she saith A Spirit did appear to her at several times in several Likenesses After some of the first Appearances she found in a low room as she swept it out a piece of a Stake which she pulled up and digged there and found some Teeth Collar Bones and a Skull broken After this the Spirit upon her demanding if it would have any thing spake to her and said Fourteen Years have I wandred in this Place suffering Wrong three times Seven Years I have to wander One and Twenty Years is my time Another time it appeared to her and said My Life was taken from me in the Chamber of this House by three Women Mary Burton Alice Colson and Anne Harrison because of 23 l. which I lent to Mary Burton Three Years before and 23 s. which they took out of my Pocket and three Rings two of Gold and one of Silver and other Writings and Bonds of the Money two of the Rings were my Grandmother's and the Silver one my own Mother's They took my Life betwixt Eight and Nine a Clock at Night and I received my Grave betwixt Twelve and One. It tells many Particulars she says which I have writ about the Place where it did live its Father's Name and Mother's and other Kindred She said It bade her make a Fire where she took up the Stake and let Mary Burton be there who came of her self to the making of it She only of the three Women is alive The Woman says she sat by the Fire till the People in the Street said her Child cried in the other Room But when she went the Child was asleep and the Spirit was standing within the Door where the Child was and said Blessed be the time when this Fire was made and blessed be they that gave Consent to the Fire-making For the Stake begins to be as warm at the Root as the Heart of me was when the Stake was struck thro' it Another time it said Send Mary Burton to the Goal and I will be with her there She says she ask'd it how it should do for Witness when she came before the Judge of the Assize and it said Thou shalt never want Witness as long as I can get either Mile or Miles She says it desired her to go to Mr. Crompton's one of the Justices and desire him to send to the Churches to pray for a wandring Soul and pray for Prosperity of a Spirit that will discover the Murder of it self the next Assize which was done Fourteen Years ago passing a Week before Midsummer last She accordingly did this Message to the said Justice and related her Story to him She says Mr. Crompton desired to see it in the Day-time but it said he was not so good as his Word to send to the Churches to get them to pray for a wandring Soul and so it would not be seen by him in the Day unless the Dark were no Danger to him She says when she would have touched it it said Thou needest not take hold of me for
sake 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He had a Remnant according to Election among them Rom. xi 5 It was then for the sake of their Fathers and for his own Name 's sake too Ezek. xxxvi And that is the second Reason Secondly He spared them for his own Name 's sake Consider we a little God's Covenant with Abraham Gen. xii 1 2. Now the Lord had said unto Abram get thee out of thy Country and from thy Kindred and from thy Father's House and I wilt bless thee and make thy Name great and thou shalt be a Blessing 1. Messiah must take Flesh of Abraham God appointed it that the Messiah should be of this Seed Heb. ii 16 He took not on him the Nature of Angels but he took on him the Seed of Abraham and the rest of the Seed of Abraham God chose for the visible Church 2. Having chosen it tho' perverse yet it had two Tyes upon him to shew Mercy First His Covenant and Secondly the Glory of his Name This Moses pleads in Behalf of Israel Upon this it is that God wisht Psal. lxxxi 13 O! that my People had hearkened unto me and Israel had walked in my Ways And Deut. v. 29. O! that there were such a Heart in them c. That is that his Covenanted People for the Honour of his Name would walk in his Ways and be obedient that he might not destroy them From hence we make two Observations First What a Canker stuck to this People in the beginning and yet they lasted a long time after This Sin and God's Doom laid on them and yet they remained a People Now wherein lyes the proper Cause of a sinful Peoples prospering enjoying of the Gospel and all good things Let England be the Example How many profane People in it How many that mind not God What Sins are among us And yet England lives Wherein lyes the Cause God's Covenant With whom VVith a peculiar People that fear him How God's Covenant God's Covenant is God's VVord of Promise and the Conditions thereof that be brought to a People And why does this Covenant procure us this Good from God Because there are some that do embrace it For their sakes God doth well to a Nation and yet they are commonly despised and persecuted So Lot was in Sodom VVhy does the VVorld stand That the Elect may be gathered Secondly A Generation may sin to that height as to bring a Guilt and Punishment upon succeeding Generations God threatens I will visit the Sins of the Fathers upon the Children This oft proves true in whole Nations As the Jews Idolatry with the Golden Calf had a sad Influence upon their Posterity And so also had that Saying of theirs long after His Blood be on us and on our Children VI. The Case of Widows marrying again considered CERTAIN VVidows were shrewdly taxed by S. Paul for marrying again in 1 Tim. v. 11 12. But the younger Widows refuse for when they have begun to wax wanton against Christ they will marry Having Damnation because they have cast off their first Faith And the Rhemists hereupon make second Matriages a Fault little less if any thing at all than Adultery I shall speak something of such a VVoman's Case The Matter here at first Sight is obscure VVe will therefore take up first the general Scope of the Apostle at this Place and then particularly unfold the several Clauses of these Verses Writing to Timothy Minister of the Church at Ephesus he gives Rules for ordering the Church there as Chap. iii. 14 15. These things I write unto thee â—â—ping to come unto thee shortly But if I tarry long that thou mightest know how thou oughtest to behave thy self in the House of God And First in the Third Chapter Rules for ordaining of Ministers and appointing Deacons and what Persons they ought to be And in this Chapter Rules concerning poor Widows to be taken to the Charge and Maintenance of the Church and to be in some Office and Employment in it They had their Xenedocheion i. e. Hospital and Widows in it to look to the Poor to get Strangers Meat to take Care of their Lodging c. Rom. xvi 1 will illustrate this I commend unto you Phoebe our Sister which is a Servant of the Church which is at Cenchrea In ver 9. they are not to be taken in under Threescore Years old So that the Apostle allows Maintainance for Widows poor Widows and Aged Widows because they had not Familes to care for as the Married had Poor that they might be relieved by the Church and do the Church some Service And Aged because such would be grave prudent and sober But the younger Widows refuse for when they have begun to wax wanton against Christ they will marry c. The Rhemists brag here for the Vow of single Life such as of Priests and Nuns Because the Apostle saith not They wax wanton and play the Whore but wax wanton and Marry Therefore they conclude it means the Vow of Chastity and single Life and they extol that Vow and cry out of the Marriage of such who have made such rash Vows First Observe that Rev. ix 8 The Locusts have the Hair of Women that is long Hair as Nazarites pretending Vows Secondly We may say Wo to them that call Evil Good and Good Evil. What is their Doom that call Vowing single Life so great a Piece of Religion which is in it self evil Chastity is good and single Life good in some Respects 1 Cor. vii 34 but to vow either is Evil because it is to vow what is not in our own Power Jer. iv 2 we are to vow in Judgment as well as in Righteousness Not only to vow that which is lawful but what is in our own Power to do For a Man to vow he will fly in the Air walk on the Sea c. is a sinful Vow because impossible so to vow a single Life is for ought he knows as impossible for him and to live chastly And God hath evidenced his Curse upon this their wretched Vowing by giving them up to horrid Uncleanness and to the Murther of their Children But we will not insist on this we are taught that Marriage is Honourable and that all cannot attain to live single and that it is better to marry than to burn But in the Case before us there is no Vow at all but another Matter A poor young Widow if taken in to be sustained by the Stock of the Church and do some Service in it as tending the Sick c. will be ready to hearken after being married and so will be careless of the Charge committed to her will be ready to be wanton and so be a Scandal Nay may be ready to be wanton against the Religion of Christ and marry to an Infidel and so cast off her first Faith The Apostle makes Supposal what young Widows may be incident to Their Age may incline them to marry their Inclination to marry
the undoing of the Nation to this Day Against these our Saviour so declaimeth Mat. xv 3 Why do you transgress the Commandment of God by your Tradition And in other Places And the Apostle 1 Pet. i. 18 where he speaks of their vain Conversation received by Tradition from their Fathers Now these Traditions in the two greatest Points of Religion viz. Concerning Christ and the Way of Salvation had introduced Doctrines as contrary to the Prophets and Truth as might be They made the Way to Salvation so easie that it was no strait Gate nor narrow Way that led thither but a few Ceremonious Works Washings Purifications Sacrifices would do the Business By these they thought they could be justified And how easie was it to perform these As for Christ our Messias they thought he should be a Temporal Deliverer and would live always and converse among them and enstate and keep them in all Earthly Pomp and Prosperity To this it is the Apostle speaks here God will send Jesus Christ among you but not as your Traditions teach to be always bodily present with you for he is now in Heaven and Heaven must contain him and there he must be till the restoring or accomplishing of all things But not of all things that are spoken by your Masters of Traditions but which God hath spoken by the Mouth of his holy Prophets According to the Sense of the Prophets not your Traditions AN EXPOSITION OF Two Select Articles OF THE Apostles Creed VIZ. I. The Holy Catholick Church II. The Communion of Saints AN EXPOSITION OF Two Select Articles OF THE Apostles Creed I. I believe the Holy Catholick Church AFTER the Creed hath done with what is to be believed concerning God it comes to speak of what is to be believed concerning other Matters of Faith It teacheth the Trinity and that we are to believe in Father Son and Holy Ghost and most largely what to believe concerning the Son His Incarnation and Acting for Man's Redemption After mention of Faith in the Trinity I believe in God the Father In his Son Jesus Christ and I believe in the Holy Ghost it first comes to teach what to believe concerning the Church and that in this Article I believe the Holy Catholick Church A Papist's Faith upon this Article comes to this Credo in Ecclesiam Sanctam Romanam Catholicam i. e. I believe in the Holy Roman Catholick Church In which they speak Impiety to believe in Men Falshood to call the Roman Church Holy and Nonsense to call that particular Church the Church Catholick or Universal I shall not insist to confute their Belief in this Point the first Part whereof is so plainly confuted by Scripture that bids not to trust in Man the second by Experience and History that tells of the abominable Unholiness of the Roman Church and the third by all Reason and common Language that tells it Nonsense to call a particular Church the Church Universal I shall first unfold to you the Article and then speak to what is observable upon the Meaning and Intent of it The Church you see is made the Object of Faith in it But of what Faith and in what Sense the Articles following shew Viz. To believe that there is a Holy Catholick Church as that there is a Communion of Saints that there is Forgiveness of Sins c. In the Article are three Things to be believed I. That there is a Church of God II. That it is Catholick III. That it is Holy The hardest thing is What is meant by Catholick and it is not easie to say How there is a Holy Church when there is so much Wickedness and Abomination in the World It is said by the Psalmist Psal. xiv 2 3. The Lord looked down from Heaven upon the Children of Men to see if there were any that did understand and seek after God They are all gone aside they are altogether become filthy there is none that doth Good no not one And where then can you find a Holy Church The Apostle Paul saith Phil. ii 21 All seek their own not the things which are Jesus Christ's And John saith 1 Ep. v. 19 The whole World lyeth in Wickedness And where can you then find a Holy Church Diogenes searched the City throughout with a Candle at Noon day and said Hominem quaero I seek for a Man So search Jerusalem with a Candle and how rarely can we find one that is Holy And where then is the Holy Catholick Church First As to the Word Catholick it signifies Universal It is rendred General in the Titles of the Epistles of James Peter and John And those are call'd General Epistles because not written to particular Persons Cities or Countries as those to Timothy the Romans the Galatians c. but generally to all in many or all Countries As S. Peter to the Strangers in Pontus Galatia Cappadocia Asia and Bithynia S. James to the twelve Tribes wheresoever scattered So the Catholick Church is first meant in Opposition to the particular Church of the Jews and secondly as meaning the Church of the Gentiles of all Nations that truly profess Christ throughout the World The Jews under the Law cry'd The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord are these So since the Gospel even hitherto they cry The Church of God are we But the Scripture tells us they are a Synagogue of Satan And Scripture teacheth us to acknowledge a Catholick Church the Church of God abroad in the World among all Nations at one time or other We shall take up the Words particularly and single And first of the Word Church And the Article doth teach and call upon us to believe That God hath ever a Church in the World I shall not insist upon the Signification of the Word in Greek and Latin nor of the Deduction of it into our English Tongue Some think our English is derived from the Greek Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies Belonging to the Lord. As 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lord's Supper 1 Cor. xi 20 And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lord's Day Rev. i. 10 So 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Church to mean the Lord's Portion as Israel is called by that Title very oft There is none of you I suppose but know what is meant by the Church of God viz. Those or that Company that worship and serve God throughout the World About the Definition or Description of the Church of God is now and hath been almost ever under the Gospel the greatest Controversie one of them in Religion As at present whether the Roman Church be a true Church Which many Protestants deny And whether the Protestant Church be a true Church Which the Romanists deny Whether the Church of England be a true Church Which Separatists deny Whether Separatists be of the true Church Which the Church of England denies The like Scruple is made of the Greek Russian Jacobin Abyssin and other Churches Into which Controversie I
shall not enter We are upon Catechistical Method to instruct the Ignorant in the necessary Points of Religion And according to that Task I shall speak only to that which is plain undeniable and necessary I. God hath ever had a Church since the beginning and will have to the end of the World As the Cherubins Wings touched both Sides of the House of the Lord and met in the middle so the Church touches both ends of the World beginning and end and continues all along the Space between No Generation in which there have not been some that truly professed the Name of God and belonged to him For we may take that for a handsome Definition of the Church 2 Tim. ii 19 The Foundation of God standeth sure having this Seal The Lord knoweth them that are his and Let every one that nameth the Name of Christ depart from Iniquity It is a People that belong to God call on the Name of God and depart from Iniquity I might trace in Scripture the Footsteps of such a People and Church from Generation to Generation from Adam to Christ. But let the Apostle do it for me Heb. xi But how can we trace it from Christ to these times This is the great Question of the Papists Where was your Church before Luther How is it possible to trace Religion and the Church from Christ hitherto but in the Church of Rome Why That there hath been a true Church ever since Christ and will be to the end of the VVorld Christ hath assured us by that Matth. xvi 18 The Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it And to that reflecteth that 2 Tim. ii 19 The Foundation of God standeth sure Not to be shaken down not to be brought to nothing And that speaketh to the same Tenor that Christ's Kingdom should be everlasting and have no end Dan. ii 44 Which shall never be destroyed And Psal. cxlv 13 Thy Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom and thy Dominion endureth throughout all Generations It is to endure throughout all Generations No Generation to be in which is not some part of that Kingdom II. But for clearing we must distinguish 'twixt the Church visible and invisible known of God and seen of Men. The Apostle makes this Distinction 1 Cor. i. 2 To the Church of God which is at Corinth to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus called to be Saints with all that in every Place call upon the Name of Jesus Christ. Sanctified and called to be Saints differ from all that profess and take on them to call on the Name of Christ. Psal. lxxxiii 3 They have consulted against thin hidden ones Hidden from the Eyes of Men that Men do not know nor own them for the People of God but he knows and sees them 2 Tim. ii 19 The Foundation of God standeth sure having this Seal The Lord knoweth those that are his They are under Seal as a sealed Letter which Men cannot read as a sealed Treasure which Men cannot see But God knows those that are his First VVe must say God hath ever had a Church but cannot say he hath ever had a visible Church Psal. xiv 1 2 3. The Fool hath said in his Heart there is no God They are corrupt they have done abominable Works There is none that doth Good c. VVhere was then a visible Church Yet there was then a Church Ver. 4. Have all the Workers of Iniquity no Knowledge Who eat up my People as they eat Bread There was a People of God but the VVicked would devour them and eat them up Look before the Flood Gen. vi 12 And God looked upon the Earth and behold it was corrupt For all Flesh had corrupted their Ways upon the Earth VVhere was a visible Church See ver 9. These are the Generations of Noah Noah was a just Man and perfect in his Generations And Noah walked with God There was a poor handful in the Family of Noah known of God but despised of Men. Look among Israel in Egypt VVhere would you look for a Church but among them Yet see Ezek. xx 7 8. Then I said unto them Cast ye away every Man the Abomination of his Eyes and defile not your selves with the Idols of Egypt But they rebelled against me and would not hearken unto me They did not every Man cast away the Abominations of his Eyes neither did they forsake the Idols of Egypt Where was a visible Church then when the Nation generally followed the Idols of Egypt Yet God had then his invisible Church Cohath Amram Aaron Moses c. One for all 1 Kin. xix 14 18. I have been very jealous for the Lord God of Hosts because the Children of Israel have forsaken thy Covenant thrown down thy Altars and slain thy Prophets with the Sword and I even I only am left Yet saith God I have left me seven Thousand in Israel c. Elias was quick-sighted to have observed one that served God and one that did not and yet he did not see one that did but himself Yet God had Seven Thousand of his hidden ones Knees that had not bowed to Baal and Mouths that had not kissed him Secondly There is no Salvation out of the Church but there may be Salvation out of the visible Church As Multitudes that are in the visible Church are not saved So some out of it may be saved I speak not this to encourage any to neglect being of the visible Church but to shew the necessity of the Distinction we are upon as to the right stating the Notion of the Church in Point of Conscience On one Hand there are some in the visible Church that are more abominable than ever were the Heathen Are there not some of the Church of England or Holland that will be called Christians that are as abominable Atheists Drunkards Whoremongers as ever were any of the Heathen Of such kind of Christians the Apostle complained 1 Cor. v. 11 But now I have written unto you not to keep Company If any Man that is called a Brother be a Fornicator or Covetous or an Idolater or a Railer or a Drunkard or an Extortioner with such an one no not to eat Implying that there were some called a Brother a Christian yet a Fornicator c. and one that was not fit to be companied withal And Phil. iii. 18 19. For many walk of whom I have told you often and now tell you even weeping that they are the Enemies of the Cross of Christ. Whose end is Destruction whose God is their Belly and whose Glory is in their Shame who mind earthly things And Tit. i. 16 They profess that they know God but in Works they deny him being abominable and disobedient and to every good Work reprobate Is not the greatest Company in any visible Church either such open profane or careless Christians or downright Hypocrites Are there not Ten an Hundred of such for One that truly fears God Well when we speak of the
it You know the hot Disputes that have been about this And for the Divisions of Reuben there are great Thoughts of Heart Hence mainly are our Separations and Divisions in Religion As in Jephtha's Case his dear Daughter was his greatest Trouble Judg. xi 35 Alas my Daughter thou hast brought me very low and thou art one of them that trouble me So this precious Sacrament of Communion is unhappily proved the great Occâ—sion of Division but in the same Notion that Christ was a Stumbling-block Which was not of any Fault of his but of Men in faultering about him 'T is true receiving of this Sacrament is a Communion but it is most especially external in the Profession of the same Faith and Doctrine of the Gospel And the Communion of Saints in this Article aimeth further I have formerly observed to you the Phrase This is the New Testament in my Blood 1 Cor. xi 25 Not only My Blood of the New Testament nor only A Seal and Sanction of the New Testament but the New Testament That is A new Administration of the New Covenant terminating Judaism and binding over Receivers to the Profession of the Evangelical Doctrine and Religion So this properly is the Communion that Receivers have in this Sacrament one with another viz. That they join in the Profession of the same Christian Doctrine and that not only among themselves but even with the whole Church that professeth the same Truth And hence it was that in the Infancy of the Church they received the Sacrament almost daily that those new Professors might thereby be held to constant Profession against revolting to their Judaism So that in this there is indeed something of the Communion of Saints all professing the same Truth and Religion but we must still look further for a Communion among Saints to take up the full meaning of the Article before us For the Inquiry after which we are first to consider that Christ's Mystical Body the Church consists of all the Saints that are or shall be in the World from the beginning to the end of it And so it includes the Saints in Glory jointly with these that are yet on Earth Those in Glory Members already above Water as their Head also is yet in the Waves of this troublesome World and not got above them As it is said of Christ himself Luke ii ult That he grew in Stature so is the Mystical Body of Christ growing in Stature till it shall be consumate at the last Day Observe that Eph. iv 13 Till we all come in the unity of the Faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect Man unto the measure of the Stature of the fulness of Christ or the measure of the full Stature of Christ. Some fondly hence conclude that all Saints shall be raised as at the very Age and Stature of Christ when he was raised which was at his very Prime viz. Two and Thirty years and an half of Age. That Elect Infants shall not be raised Infants but as of that Age and Stature That the Aged shall not be raised as Aged but as at their Prime of that Age and Stature Which as it breeds confusion in the understanding of the Article of the Resurrection of the Body so it is clean besides the Apostles intent there He speaks not of our Bodies but of Christ's Mystical Body viz That God had given Apostles and Teachers for the building up that Body the Church by degrees till it came to its full Stature and Perfection in the Salvation of all that belong to it So Saints are building up daily and those that are gone to Glory so much of that Body is compleated and the rest growing on to the same Perfecting till all be Compleated and the whole Body Perfected So that those compleated in Glory and these compleating toward Glory here are the same Body though at present of a different condition The Church Militant and Triumphant are not two Churches not two Bodies but one whole Church and Body of Christ consisting of Members some already Perfected and some Perfecting As Israel at the Temple in the two Courts were not two Congregations and Churches but one Congregation in two divers places two Companies of one Congregation The Apostle in Heb. xi ult saith God having provided some better thing for us that they without us should not be made perfect When some say the Saints under the Law are not perfected in Glory till Christ's coming but in Limbo Whereas the Apostle speaks in the sense we are upon viz. That those Holy Ones without us under the Gospel are not the perfect Body of Christ but the Body was to consist of Gentiles as well as Jews Of some yet to be saved as well as of them that are saved already Now is there any Communion 'twixt these two parts of the same Body Saints on Earth and Saints in Glory I mean is there any imparting of the one to the other as there is 'twixt two Parties in Communion Some will tell you Yes We are to Pray to them and they Pray for us As he in the Prophet makes a God and then falls down to it So it is common in the Church of Rome to make whom they think good Saints and then to Pray to them that they would Pray for them to God Whereas they can never clear the Praying to Creatures from Idolatry and can never prove that it is possible for a Saint in Heaven to hear one Speaking and Praying on Earth much less to know the Heart with which he Prays So can they ever prove that there is Praying in Heaven at all The Church here is called the House of Prayer but it is hard to prove that Heaven is so There is Praising and Thanksgiving and Glorifying God and Adoring the Lamb But where do we ever read of Praying in Heaven Nay Can any prove that Christ Prayeth there for his People But he exerciseth his Mediation some other way He offereth up the Prayers of his Saints Rev. viii 3 And another Angel came and stood at the Altar having a Golden Censer and there was given unto him much Incense that he should offer it with the Prayers of all Saints upon the Golden Altar which was before the Throne But that he offers them he Praying also cannot be cleared But I shall not insist on this The Article aims at the Communion of Saints upon Earth according to David's Style Psal. xvi 3 To the Saints that are in the Earth Saints scattered in the Earth and yet have they Communion We may think of that Ezek. xxxvii 3 Can these dry scattered Bones come together and Live Yes ver 7. Bone came to his Bone and Lived So Son of Man can Men dispersed in Europe Asia Africa and America have Communion They know not one another never saw one another and they have Communion Yes There is an invisible Vein of Communion runs betwixt all Saints on Earth Which we consider in these