THE TRUE CATHOLICKS TENURE OR A good Christians certainty which he ought to have of his Religion and may have of his salvation By EDVVARD HYDE D. D. Sometimes Fellow of Trinity Colledge in CAMBRIDGE and late Rector Resident of Brightwell in Berks. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. EPHES. 5. 1. Be ye followers of me as I am of Christ. CAMBRIDGE Printed by John Field Printer to the University 1662. To the Right Honourable EDWARD Earl of Clarendon Viscount Cornbury Baron of Hindon Lord High Chancellour of England and Chancellour of the Universitie of OXFORD My Lord YOu will pardon the boldness of this Dedication from one who is unknown to your Lordship when you have considered the consanguinitie or near relation of the Authour of the ensuing work to your most Noble person If we add to this a forcible tie or obligation of love his Autonomy his bearing the same name with your Lordship both as man and Christian likewise his assimilation or likeness to your Honour in the high accomplishments of Nature and Grace he being for his steadie loyalty to his King his fidelitie to the Church and stupendious science in all kinde of learning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that I may say of him what S. Chrysostome saith of another a prodigie amongst men admired by the most and beloved of all good Christians weighing all these particulars in the balance of my private thoughts I from them drew this conclusive perswasion that if my deceased dear Friend were now living and to put the ensuing Treatise the childe of his brain out to nurse he would have ventured upon your Lordships patronage who may style this learned work your own and it justly own you for its parent as being the copy of your soul and picture of your life what is delineated and set down in it by way of doctrine or precept your Lordship hath drawn out in the lines of your life by practice for it contains a lively pourtraiture of a good Christian and loyal Subject A Separatist may deceive himself by dividing these two and flatter his deluded soul with a perswasion that though he bears not in his heart a respectfull love to his Sovereign he may scale heaven upon the ladder of a bare title or with the outward badge of an empty name in that he is called Christian and challengeth Christ as his with his daring tongue Let such 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 self-deceivers peruse without partiality or prejudice the following Treatise and they will learn a better lesson it will inform them of this truth that loyaltie and Christianitie like that Eros and Anteros in the Fable are so twisted and linked together that as one cannot live or be without the other so he that is false to his King cannot be true to Christ our Saviour who in his word enjoyns us to be good Subjects in obeying our Kings just commands whom God hath set over us as he requires of us to act the parts of good Christians which is to imitate him in humilitie and charitie in sobrietie and meekness in pietie and Patience in love and obedience in brotherly kindness to all even to those that are under us That this holy frame of spirit may be wrought in the hearts of all his Majesties Subjects as it is in your Lordships it is and ever shall be the hearty prayer of Your Lordships most humble Servant R. Boreman To the Christian Reader GReat is the impietie yet greater if possible is the inconstancy of this our age God justly delivering us over to inconstancy because we have delivered our selves over to impietie The whole book of God tells us but of one Ahab that sold himself to work wickedness but our own sad experience if not our guilty Consciences must needs tell us of many thousands that are now riding Post to that market They chose new gods then was war in the gates Judg. 5. 8. expresseth the least part of our present sin and future punishment for we are daily choosing new gods to increase our sin and there are daily new wars raging amongst us nay within us to increase our punishment wars not onely in our gates to waste our estates but also in our hearts to waste our Consciences we have been a long time forsaking our God and now we are labouring to forsake our selves we would not when we might follow the dictates of Religion and now we cannot if we would follow the dictates of Reason or the directions of common sense we were at first perverse and would not know Gods minde we are now become stupid and do not know our own of this fancie to day of another to morrow and as it was in Jobs messengers The last is the worst or as it is in the outragious billows of the tempestuous waves the first do toss and shake but the last do drown and sink us and all is from fancy in stead of certainty in matters of Religion I say from fancy for the humour that is now most predominant settles not deep enough to be called perswasion stays not long enough to be called a resolution Good Lord is this to be Reformed Christians not to be firm not to be real Christians for they alone are the Real Christians all others are merely fantastical who sanctifie the Lord God in their hearts and are ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh them a reason of the hope that is in them with meekness and fear 1 S. Pet. 3. 15. There is not one word in all this text but drives at the certainty of Religion 1. It must be fixed in the heart not slaunting in the head 2. It must sanctifie the Lord God who as Lord changeth not and as God loves not those who are given to change especially for the worse 3 It must put us in a readiness to give an answer to every man that shall ask a reason of the hope that is in us which cannot be effected without great judgement and deliberation in the choice of our Religion and greater constancy and resolution in the practice of it for we must not onely answer every man that shall ask us but also answer by giving a reason of our hope that is we must answer by convincing him that asks us if he gainsay our hope or at least by confirming our selves against all his gainsayings for in vain do we talk of an hope of salvation that is in us from the belief and practise of our Religion if our Religion be so unsettled as to be shaken by the storm of a persecution or so uncertain as to be blown away by the breath of an argument the hope of salvation which we have or may have from the true Religion is a hope so fixed as to make us withstand persecutours much more to withstand sophisters for though it fills us with meekness in regard of our own infirmities and with fear in regard of our own impieties yet it fills us with
is nothing else but that doctrine and practise which is made up of these two integral parts the knowledge and the worship of God in Christ the one uniting our understanding to the first truth the other uniting our will to the chiefest good both together perfecting the communion of the soul with God so that of these two parts consists het substance of Religion But because Religion in the general doctrine of it may onely fill the head with empty speculations all tending to fancy and to curiosity not the heart with holy affections and heavenly desires which may tend to the sanctification of our sinfull souls here and the salvation of our sanctified souls hereafter It is most necessary that all Christians make sure of a profession of Religion agreeable to their doctrine and of a practise agreeable to their profession and these two will compleat the exercise of Religion which is no other but the application or accommodation of the substance thereof to Time Place and Person that is to say the profession of the knowledge and the practise of the worship of God And this difference we may observe between the substance and the exercise of Religion First the substance of Religion is all immediately from God but the exercise of Religion in many things depends upon the authority of man Sacrificare est de lege naturae determinatio sacrificiorum ex institutione saith Aquinas that men should offer sacrifice to God is of the law of nature but that they should offer these kinds of sacrifices or in these places or in these set times or after this set form and manner depends wholly upon institution either Divine as among the Jews or Humane as among the Gentiles But we may not shoot at Rovers in so narrow a compass the law of nature is not sufficient to teach us the substance of Religion but we must learn that from the law of God For though it be the dictate of natural reason that men should exhibit worship to God as their first beginning and last end yet the true determinate worship that God accepts depends wholly upon Gods own institution and revelation So Aquinas 22 ae q. 81. art 2 Cultum aliquem Deo exhibere est de dictamine rationis at determinatum verum exhibere pendet ab institutione divini juris That man should worship God is the dictate of natural Reason but that he should worship him rightly and truely depends wholly upon supernatural revelation the one is matter of Instinct the other is wholly matter of divine Institution And surely though many men now adays make very bold with God yet there is scarce any petty master of a private family amongst us who would not take it in high disdain that any but himself should teach his family how to serve him Let us then not think but the great Lord of Heaven and earth alone teacheth his servants to do unto him true and acceptable service for fear we fall under the sentence of that condemnation S. Mat. 15. 9. But in vain do they worship me teaching for doctrines the commandments of men If the Saviour of the world reject thy Religion how canst thou hope to be saved by it and surely he rejects that Religion as altogether vain and unprofitable which takes mans institutions and inventions for any part of Gods worship or he would never have added that word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in vain to the words of the Prophet for whereas Isaiah saith Their fear towards me is taught by the precept of men Isa. 29. 13. our Saviour thus explains his saying by way of addition In vain do they worship me teaching for doctrines the commandments of men And truly although in the exercise of Religion the outward order and decency depends much upon the constitutions of men yet is that outward order and decency no substantial part of the Religion nor may it so be taken unless we will profess and say that we have a Religion of our own making and then what remains but that if we have made our Religion we should also make our God It is to be confessed that great is the liberty of Christian Churches in matter of ceremony but those who will make ceremonies matter of Religion do in effect take away that liberty by turning it into a necessity and do change the nature of indifferency by supposing it indispensable if not making it so But herein Aquinas his observation is very judicious In lege novâ quae est lex amoris vel libertatis dari tantum praecepta de operibus quae cum gratiâ necessariam habent convenientiam vel repugnantiam caetera verò quae non habent relicta esse determinationi humanae arbitrio superiorum si ad communem utilitatem pertinent c. That in the Gospel which is the law of love liberty God hath given precepts only concerning those works which have a necessary conveniency or repugnancy with grace that is works which immediately concern either sin or righteousness but other things that do not immediately concern either sin or righteousness are left to the determination and disposition of man for if they be of publique interest they are left to the judgement of our superiours either Ecclesiastical or Civil if they be of private interest they are left to the judgement of every mans own private reason Itaquè non ut de Sacramentis it a de Sacramentalibus hoc est de dispositionibus ad Sacramenta vel conficienda vel suscipienda lex nova habet praecepta divina sed determinatio ipsorum est Ecclesiae relicta à Christo. Therefore though we have in the Gospel explicit and direct commands about the Sacraments themselves yet have we not so about the Sacramentals that is about those Rites and dispositions which are necessary either to the giving or receiving of them but the determination of such Rites and Ceremonies is left by Christ unto his Church The Iew indeed was confined by the text in the manner of exercising his duty towards God by the Ceremonial Law and towards his neighbour by the Iudicial Law but the Christian is not so he hath documents only concerning the substance or matter not concerning the form or manner of his duty either to God or man for such determinations hath Christ left wholly to his Church as not belonging in themselves to Vertue and Religion but onely to Decency and Order Non enim ad orationem prout est actus virtutis Religionis de se pertinet ut fiat tali certo loco vel tempore aut cum illâ certâ corporis dispositione neque ad restitutionem quae est actus virtutis justitiae pertinet ut fiat in duplum vel in quadruplum sic de similibus As for example It belongs not to prayer as it is an act of Vertue and Religion that it be performed in such a certain place or time or with such or such a posture of the body and it belongs not
Thou art God from everlasting that is without beginning and thou art God to everlasting that is without end And so also is Religion Eternal both from everlasting and to everlasting from everlasting in the reason of it because it is a service or reverence due to God by vertue of his excellent Majesty and consequently that due is Eternal with his very Being but onely to everlasting in the practise of it because there was no creature from everlasting to practise it how then should we exceedingly desire to know Religion how to love it how to practise it whereby alone our souls are prepared to believe Eternity and to enjoy it and to employ it an irreligious soul could it possibly get to heaven would not know what to do there for there is nothing but the practise of Religion or praising God Rev. 19. 1 5 7. Again as God in that he is Eternal oweth his Beginning and Continuance to none but onely to himself and as Eternity because it is from it self is therefore without a Beginning and because it is of it self is therefore without an end so true Religiō hath in some sort its Being from it self for it is bonum in se it is good in and by it self and therefore hath its subsistence in and by it self let the whole world turn Atheist as it is turning apace yet the true Religion will still be the true Religion there may be in the practise of Religion many things good because they are commanded but in the substance of Religion the internal goodness is the reason of the external command so that Religion is indeed a beam of that light which proceedeth from the Father of Lights shewing unto Angels men what they are to know love and do and so leading them both to the Light everlasting for as God himself is so is his service and therefore I could not better explain the properties of Religion then from the properties of God Onely God hath his properties immediately flowing from his own essence but Religion partakes of these mediately from God as it is his service God hath these properties not onely Formally in himself but also Originally from himself Religion hath them Formally in it self but Originally from God Thus hath Religion all those properties of God which are incommunicable to the Creature and thereby appears to have in it self more of Divinity then any Creature whatsoever either in Heaven or in Earth for these being the properties of the true Religion in it self shew it to be spiritual far above the nature of all created spirits whereby themselves draw nearer to the God of Spirits in their affections then in their natures If therefore thou O man desire to be truly Religious thou must desire to be spiritually minded and the way to be so is to have a kinde of Simplicity or Incomposition that is a sincerity of the soul in the love of God To have a kinde of Immutability that is a Constancy to have an Immensity that is a servent Zeal and Alacritie which will not endure to be straitned or confined and to have an Eternity that is an unwearied perseverance in the Faith and Fear and Love of God Nay indeed these same properties are already in thy soul if thou be truly Religious for then thou art spiritually minded and thou canst not but have an uncompounded soul by sincerity of its service not dividing thy affection betwixt God and Baal betwixt Christ and Belial Thou canst not but have a constancy in his service which will let thee be no Changeling a thing as monstrous and abominable in the second as in the first birth thou canst not but have an alacrity and fervency of spirit which will not be circumscribed or confined either to or by time or place neither to a Conclave at Rome nor to a Consistory at Geneva nor to a Conventicle in England for as Christianity it self is not confined so neither the soul as 't is Christian but joyns in Communion with all Christians that ever were or that are or that shall be in the honour and love of Christ thy house is too little thou wilt to the Church nay the Church is too little thou wilt to the Catholick Church the whole Church Militant thy spirit shall be with theirs when theirs is with Christ nay the Catholick Church is too little here on Earth thou wilt up to that part of it which is triumphant in Heaven for Christian duties as they are practised here will cease with our lives therefore the Christian soul will look after such duties as she may practise in Heaven and at least in habit if not in act will even here be eternally Religious as we are divinely taught by our own Church saying with a most Catholick spirit It is very meet right and our bounden duty that we should at all times and in all places give thanks unto thee O Lord holy Father Almighty everlasting God thereby shewing us the Immensity of Religion That it is not to be circumscribed to or by any place for it is meet that we give thanks in all places and also the eternity of Religion that it is not to be confined to or by any time for it is meet that we give thanks at all times Eternity being the blessedness we look for the means whereby we compass it must needs be eternal not onely in the efficient cause God himself but also in the instrumental cause that is Religion And since Omnipotency All sufficiency and Omnisciency are but three branches of Eternity It is necessary before I come to the Communicable Properties that I speak of them for God in that he is Eternal is Omnipotent since there could be no other fountain of power unless we would make two Eternals and the same God as he is Eternal is All-sufficient for having his being of himself he must needs also have it perfectly in himself and lastly the same God as he is Eternal is also Omniscient for it is the Property of Eternity to have all things present to it as to be always present to it self wherefore it will be worth our while briefly to consider these Properties as they are in God and as they are also in Religion the service of God and first of the Omnipotency Gods Omnipotency or Almighty Power appears especially in two things First that he hath power to do all that he will Secondly that he hath power over all when he will had he not the First he could not be Almighty in himself had he not the second he could not be Almighty in our esteem the first tends to the Execution the second to the Declaration of his Almighty power The text doth ordinarily prove them both together as 1 Tim 6. 15. the Son of God is called the blessed and onely Potentate the King of kings and Lord of lords The onely Potentate that hath power to do all that he will and hath also power to do all when he will as King of kings
trembling but as we have out-passed those ten Lepers in our uncleanness so we may not come short of them in their holy fear and faith for as their fear made them stand afar off so their faith made them lift up their voices and say Jesus Master have mercy on us S. Luc. 17. 12 13. then will he give us such a purity as will not onely make us shew our selves to the Priest but also to our God such a purity as will wash our eyes to see him and much more our hearts to love him for so saith S. Peter Act. 15. 9. purisying their hearts by faith not a faith which costs the purse no alms the body no fasting the soul no praying for no true Israelite will ever offer that unto the Lord which cost him nothing 2 Sam. 24. 24. but a faith which so purifies the soul by knowing the truth as much more by obeying it for so saith the same Apostle Seeing you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren see that you love one another with a pure heart fervently 1 S. Pet. 1. 22. this is the purity of the true Religion it purifies the soul not onely by faith but also by obedience and by love which yet are now generally farthest from many men who would fain be thought to come nearest Purity Thus we have seen Gods truth in his understanding his goodness in his will and his purity in his action it still remains that we consider his Liberty as belonging to them all for Liberty being nothing else but the dominion and power of action must needs be originally in the understanding which alone is able to judge and deliberate of what is to be done what not formally in the will which resolves to do or not to do but effectually 't is onely in the action which is the product of the said deliberate resolution this liberty is now briefly to be handled First as it is in God and then as it is in Religion for being the service of God Gods Liberty is seen in five respects in that he is free from sin free from misery free from obligation free from servitude and free from coaction which is the reason that he can both will and do what and when and where himself pleaseth I need not insist on the proof of these for to name them is to prove them nor can any man deny Gods Liberty in any of these respects but he must deny him to be God and in all these same respects we may see and must acknowlege the Liberty of Religion and to deny it to be free in any of these is to deny it to be Religion that is to say the service of God and to make it to be state policy that is to say the service of men First Religion is free from sin for the superstition and faction and profaneness and other sins that are so rife among Christians to the dishonour of Christ and the reproach of Christendome is a rust that cleaves to the men who are little better then iron not to the Religion which is as pure as the Refiners fire and therefore it is not safe nor fit to say of any order or kinde of Christians that their Religion is rebellion and their faith is faction though we cannot deny of too too many orders and kindes of men who profess Religion that they are both rebellious and factious Secondly Religion is free from misery ask the three children in the fiery furnace they will say their Religion had made them persecuted they will not say that it had made them miserable they profess that they were delivered into the hands of lawless enemies most hatefull apostates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 meaning sure those of their own brethren which had renounced the Law of Moses and their Religion and helped the Babylonians to persecute and infest Jerusalem and to an unjust King and the most wicked in all the world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thus those blessed Martyrs will tell you they were in persecution the greatest that ever was but they will not tell you they were in misery nay it seems they told the quite contrary for none else could have told it but from their mouths that the angel of the Lord came down into the oven and smote the flame of fire and made the midst of the furnace as it had been a moist whistling wind but you will say these men were partial witnesses in their own cause therefore ask their persecutors they will tell you the same for the Princes Governours and Captains and the Kings Counsellours being gathered together saw these men upon whose bodies the fire had no power nor was an hair of their head singed neither were their coats changed nor the smell of fire had passed on them nay ask Nebuchadnezzar himself who was the authour of the persecution and he will tell you that though he had caused these holy men to be so much afflicted yet he could not cause them to be miserable for at that instant when he had thought they had been burnt to ashes he heard them sing in the flames as saith the Greek Translation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that probably made him look about to see whence that melody proceeded and finding so sweet a breath to come from the blast of his fire he was astonied and rose up in haste and went to the mouth of the furnace which before bade him keep his distance in that it consumed his officers and called forth the holy and blessed Martyrs who having been delivered from a present death could not be looked on but as men newly risen from the dead Thirdly Religion is free from obligation there is no greater humane obligation then that of nature and there is no greater natural obligation then that which we owe to our Parents yet that may not be alledged to keep us from serving God so Aquinas determines the case Si ergo cultus parentum abstrahat nos a cultu Dei non jam esset pietatis parentum insistere cultui contra Deum ideo in tali casu dimittinda sunt officia pietatis in parentes propter divinum Religionis cultum 22 ae qu. 101. art 4. If our duty to our Parents take us away from our duty to our God as if the Father should command his son to turn rebel or Idolater or the like we must forsake our parents and cleave to God and shew the prevalency of that duty we owe to God by being undutifull to our parents in such a case again there is no civil obligation greater then that we owe to our Governours yet if they command us to sin against God by not speaking nor teaching by not praying nor preaching in the Name of Iesus we have our answer put into our mouths and God put it into our hearts lest atheism get possession there in stead of Christ whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 alsufficient who by small or unlikely means can bring great or mighty things to pass they doubt of his being alsufficient who walk in uneven waies and use evil means to work out their ends and to effect their enterprises as did Ahaziah the son of Ahab who in his sickness sent messengers to Baal-zebub the God of Ekron to enquire of him whether he should recover of his disease 2 Kin. 1. the like did the wicked Saul 1 Sam. 28. when being in a great strait by the Philistines that warred against him he went to a woman that had a familiar spirit to know of her whether he should conquer his enemies but this did not holy David he apprehended God to be all-sufficient that having promised him the kingdom would in his good time effect what he promised wherefore he used no sinister or unlawfull means to accomplish his desires but waited on God for the performance of his promise he had many opportunities to have gotten the Crown oftentimes Saul fell into his hands so that he might have destroyed him but he would not do it he would not touch him to his hurt because he was the Lords anointed but committed himself to the will of God waiting his leisure so after a few years his desires were accomplished his grand enemy flain and he setled in the Throne of this holy frame of spirit was that good Jonathan the Son of Saul 1 Sam. 14. 6. when he said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non est Jehovae impedimentum there is no restraint to the Lord to save by many or by few so was Asa affected towards God his heart was possessed with high thoughts of his all-sufficiency 2 Chr. 14. 11. when Zerah the Ethiopian came against him with a thousand thousand men and three hundred chariots then saies the Text he cried unto the Lord his Lord and said Lord it is nothing with thee to help whether with many or with them that have no power help us O Lord our God for we rest on thee the Lord heard his cry and did help him that huge host was overthrown in a moment this Victory he obtained by his faith in the Lord of Hosts who is all-sufficient The thinking of him not so to be is the cause of all those indirect courses which men take to accomplish their worldly designes as when they lie and dissemble swear and forswear to get riches or go to conjurers and witches such men put not their whole trust and assiance in God but rather conceive that God cannot do what they desire by himself or by his own power unless they help him with their crafty wiles and politick devices when Peter denied Christ was it not out of fear and from whence was that fear was it not because he did not apprehend God to be all-sufficient a strong buckler of defence so that without his lying and dissimulation he could have rescued him out of the Jews bloudy hands although he had own'd his Lord and Master Christ Jesus To conclude if this comfortable Name of God were throughly digested by faith in our souls if we did beleeve that he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God almighty and all-sufficient we should walk before him or as in his presence as Enoch Abraham and David did with a perfect heart we should fear him for his all-commanding power and love him for his Goodness of which there is in him a transcendent fullness we should be chearfull in adversity being content with God alone and think our selves very rich and happy though we be poor when we have God for our possession we should then see an emptiness in the creatures here below through whom God shines so that whatsoever excellency or beauty whatsoever worth vertue or comfort is in them it is an high degree in God who gave them their being and all things that attend it the consideration of this would make us more to delight in God and not dote on them which are but shadows in respect of that everlasting Sun and all their excellencies or perfections but so many beams descending from the Father of Lights or as so many blossomes of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first Goodness so that if we separate these particularities from that universal good and not admire God in them or be not thankfull to God for them all our affections spent on them would be unchaste and their embraces adulterous hence it is said in the Scriptures that men in regard of their blinde dotage on them are said to go a whoring after vanities or the creatures which are vain and empty if compared with their makers fullness Lastly if God be all-sufficient then let him be our onely stay and comfort Let us trust in him alone being perswaded of this truth that he can help and support us without the assistance of the creatures but not all these without his blessing and providence ever look at God through the creatures who subsist by him who is a present help in trouble and oft sends best success when we are at the lowest or in a sad desperate condition because we usually then relie upon him most and go to him alone by prayer and supplication and then may we expect great mercies when we have a great faith in the great God of Heaven who delights in them who by their affiance or whole dependency on his powerfull Goodness bring much glory to him to this great all-sufficient and Almighty God to the Father Son and holy Ghost be given and ascribed all honour praise dominion and power c. Amen Most gracious God who art all-sufficient in thy self and from the inexhausted Treasury of thy goodness conveyest all things for the use of our bodies and comfort of our souls give us we pray thee largeness of spirits sutable to thy bounty towards us O enlarge our hearts with love and thankfulness to thee and let both display themselves in large expressions of duty that our thankfull lips may ever praise and our holy lives glorifie thee and above all Lord give us thine own self in blessing all thy gifts unto us and give us withall thy Son Christ Jesus that he may be ours in the pardon of all our sins by the merit of his death and passion and in the saving of our poor souls and we his by serving him all our dayes in holiness and righteousness Grant this heavenly Father for his sake who died and now sits in heaven at thy right hand making intercession for us Amen FINIS ALLEGIANCE AND CONSCIENCE Not fled out of England OR THE Doctrine of the Church of England CONCERNING Allegiance and Supremacy As it was delivered by the former Authour upon the Occasion and at the Time of Trying the King by his own Subjects In several Sermons Anno 1649. on the words of Ecclesiastes Eccles 8. 2 3 4. By EDW. HYDE D. of Divinity Tert. ad Scap. c. 2. Colimus Imperatorem ut Hominem à Deo secundum solo Deo minorem
dragged them to Babylon He that can make light of an Oath not onely God but also the Heathen that know not God will expose him to shame because he hath exposed himself to all manner of wickedness And this much or rather this little for in this argument non tam copia quà m modus quaerendus est concerning the positive Act of Allegiance To keep the Kings commandment and the reason of it Because of the Oath of God Come we next to the privative act thereof which is Not to be guilty of Disallegiance vers 3. Be not hasty to go out of his sight stand not in an evil thing c. wherein is forbidden all manner of Disallegiance and disloyalty not onely in the Action but also in the Affection Be not not hasty to go out of his sight there 's forbidden Disallegiance in the Affection and stand not in an evil thing there 't is forbidden in the Action and the reason of both For he doeth whatsoever pleaseth Him First here is forbidden Disloyalty in the Affection Be not hasty to go out of his sight 1 Be not easily induced to take dislike or distaste against Him by undervaluing his Person and misjudging or misrendring his Actions for either of these will bring thee in time to undervalue if not to undermine his Authoritie therefore saith God himself Exod. 22. 28. Thou shalt not revile the Gods nor curse the Ruler of the people 't is in the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Deos nè vili pendas Thou shalt not think or speak lightly of the Gods that is of Princes and Governours who are called Gods because they are his Vice-gerents Deos Dei ipsius agentes vicem so Tremellius He calleth those Gods who are Governours in Gods stead and S. Paul acknowledgeth this Text to be a part not of the Judicial but of the Moral Law saying for himself and all after him It is written Thou shalt not speak evil of the Ruler of thy people Act. 23. 5. The same command which is more particularly expounded by our Preacher Eccles 10. 20. where the very same word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that was used Exod. 22. 28. indefinitely concerning any Governour is particularly joyned with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the King as the chiefest for 't is said Curse not the King no not in thy thought Be not hasty to think amiss of Him for suspicion is a diminution of reverence and therefore 't is not safe if it be lawfull to suspect them whom we are bound to honour But Tremellius gives us another gloss Nè perturbatè à facie ejus abito most significantly to the Hebrew Do not turn away from Him as if thou wert angred or troubled Thus Sheba and the Israelites turned away from King David after their expostulations 2 Sam. 19. 41 43. And more then thus they turned away from Him in the next chapter 2 Sam. 20. 1 2. At first it was why have our brethren the men of Judah stollen thee away 2 Sam. 19 41. A meer groundless surmise of the Kings being addicted to a private partie if not of his being misled by it but at last the trumpet is blown and they say shame upon them Miscreants for so saying We have no part in David neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse and to speak Gods truth in Gods cause It is very difficult if not impossible for any man to have the least tincture of disloyaltie in his affections and not to shew it in his words and actions since out of the abundance of the heart both the mouth speaketh and the hand acteth which brings me to the second part of this prohibition that forbids all disloyaltie in the action Stand not in an evil thing For who is it that is not too hasty in his affection to err there sometimes by hatred sometimes by anger Let such a one be far better then a man let him be an Angel but he that without consideration or conscience can put all his hasty affections of hatred or anger into actions let him be worse then the worst of men let him be a Devil Humanum est errare diabolicum perseverare 'T is the part of a man to fallinto errour but 't is the part of a Devil to persist in it hasty affections of evil may go for errours or infirmities common to man of which Who can say I have made my heart clean I am pure from my sin Prov. 20. 9. But premeditated consultations and actions of mischief have too long a continuance in the soul not to defile the heart and too great a sway there not to harden it wherefore if thou think an evil thing yet abide not in that thought however do not so think it as to do it and if thou hast done an evil thing yet abide not in that doing do not so do it as to stand in it Stand not in an evil thing It should not get into thy mind to think it nor into thy affection to desire it much less into thy action to perform and least of all into thy resolution to approve it and all these do more particularly concern that evil thing of Disloyaltie for it is much to be observed that amongst all the affections no one is reciprocal betwixt God and man but onely Love not Fear for we must fear him but he cannot fear us not hatred for he may hate us but we may not hate him but love so proceeds from God to man as that it may lawfully or rather must dutifully be returned back again from man to God and just so is it with Kings and Princes we may safely return them love for love both in our affections and in our actions but we must take heed of making other returns suppose hatred for hatred because they are called Gods And it is a most remarkable historie that is recorded concerning Saul a wicked King the same Samuel that saith unto Him God hath rejected thee durst not himself reject Him He that tells Him God hath rent the kingdom of Israel from thee this day had not withall rent his own Allegiance from his King For though he came no more to see Saul till the day of his death nevertheless he heartily mourned for him 1 Sam. 15. 35. Nay observe yet more David himself after He was anointed King yet waits Gods time and way to be actually invested in the kingdom and is very tender concerning the point of Disallegiance to his yet surviving Sovereign His heart smote him because he had cut off Sauls skirt 1 Sam. 24. 5. what would it have done if He had cut off His head Nay he would not let any of his servants touch Him vers 6 and 7. and gives the reason of it vers 10. I said I will not put forth mine hand against my Lord for He is the Lords Anointed Nay yet further He refuseth not to swear Fealtie and Allegiance to Him and kindness to his posterity after him v. 21 22. and did exactly
foundations because they joyn the soul to him which cannot be properly said of any man whatsoever nor of all the congregations of men in the world not of S. Peter himself and much less of his successours and if it be said cannot be justified by any good Logick or good Divinity much less by that distinction of Fundamentum primarium and secundarium of a primary and a secondary foundation which distinguisheth a numerical identity from it self with too much subtilty and too little truth calling that a secondary foundation which is indeed a piece of the building and therefore they that teach Post Christum fundamentum est Petrus nisi per Petrum non pervenitur ad Christum Bellarm. in praefat in libros de summo Pontifice do mistake a pillar for the foundation to be a pillar in Gods house is a more glorious title then is given to any angel and carries with it a burden too heavy for any man who hath not the extraordinary assistance of the Spirit of God and therefore the Holy Ghost thinks it enough to call S. Peter a pillar leaves it for Christ alone to be the foundation James Cephas that is Peter and John who seemed to be pillars Gal. 2. 9. Cephas was a pillar and Iames and Iohn were no less pillars then Cephas or Peter and consequently their successours no less pillars then his successours but neither of them was a foundation properly so called vide Field pag. 478 479. that is too high an attribute for any man since he cannot work upon the soul by his own power and virtue to unite that immediately unto Christ for he is the onely foundation that sustains the whole building and faith and repentance are called foundations by S. Paul onely as settling and establishing us in Christ which is not possible for any man or angel to do who can work onely instrumentally towards these by instructing the understanding and exciting the will but cannot do the work of them and therefore cannot so much as reductively or instrumentally be called foundations And this is agreeable with Bonaventure's distinction in lib. 4. sent dist 22. qu. 1. Fundamentum dicitur dupliciter uno modo locus in quo aedificium stabilitur alio modo dicitur fundamentum illud secundùm quod res locatur in suo sustentaculo A thing may be called a foundation in two respects either that it self sustains the building so Christ is the onely foundation or that it causeth us to be sustained by the foundation and that is done three ways either by removing the impediments that keep us from it or by placing and settling us on it or by confirming and strengthening us in it In the first consideration Repentance is a foundation because it removes away our sins that keep us from Christ in the second consideration Faith is a foundation because it placeth fixeth our souls on Christ that is to say A faith working by love whence the Apostle saith That we are rooted and grounded in Christ through love as well as through faith Eph. 3. 17. for a faith that is without love is a faith of devils which will nor invite Christ to come to us much less to dwell with us and least of all to dwell in us The Solifidian as he will have his faith to dwell without love so he must be contented himself to dwell without Christ. And lastly in the third consideration the Word and sacraments may be called foundations because they are the means to confirm and strengthen us in Christ All these may in several respects be called Foundations for all these have an immediate influence upon the soul of man by reason of the grace which accompanies them which influence no man possibly can have and therefore no man justly can claim But all these which are called Foundations have as I said an immediate influence upon our souls to make us rise with Christ our Foundation and seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God Col. 3. 1 2. for as all the material building tendeth downwards because the foundation is below so all the spiritual building tendeth upwards saith the same Seraphical Doctour because the Foundation thereof is above even on the right hand of the Majesty on high Heb. 1. 3. Wherefore we have need of a strong repentance to raise us up from earth that we may detest and forsake our own unrighteousness and we have need of a strong faith to raise us up to heaven that we may lay hold on our Saviours righteousness not onely in our confidences but also in our consciences not onely in our applications but also in our affections not onely by our persuasion but also by our imitation A thing that is easily said but not so easily done for he that will make sure of a true faith must make sure of beleeving at least in the preparation of his minde all the truths that God hath revealed as well as all the mercies that God hath promised or Christ hath purchased And he that will make sure of a true repentance must make sure of bewailing at least in the preparation of his minde and the desire of his soul all those sins which he hath committed and of so bewailing the sins he hath committed as not wilfully to commit the sins he hath bewailed he that hath made sure of this faith and of this repentance hath taken the right way to make sure of his religion to serve God not our of custom but out of conscience not of hypocrisie but out of integrity not onely in the communion of men but also in the communion of saints and this man alone can come to make sure of his salvation We take now a contrary course every man makes sure of his salvation but no man makes sure of his Religion is not Christ Jesus the same yesterday and to day and for ever as it is said Heb. 13. 8. how is it then that we are not the same Christians yesterday and to day and for ever and yet we talk of nothing more then of going to Christ whiles we do nothing less then draw neer him Had we looked after Christ in Christs own Church we should certainly have found him and had we once found him we should not so willingly have left him Had we seen Christ in the exercise of our Christian Religion we would certainly have communicated with him and had we once communicated with him we would not for the advantages or disadvantages of this world have so easily forsaken his communion It is to be feared that either we professed our Christianity as hypocrites and so were not sure of our Religion or that we are fallen from our profession as apostates and cannot make sure of our salvation I speak this out of the love of truth and their souls who are my brethren and therefore hope it will offend none that either love the truth or the brotherhood and must not be affrighted if it do
or by the bounds of any place though all spirits are confined to and by the limited bounds of their own essence save onely one which is the God of spirits He acknowledgeth not any bounds of essence cannot confine himself much less doth he acknowledge any bounds of place to be confined by another And this boundless Infinity of God appears in three respects for God may be said to be infinite or incomprehensible three manner of ways Cogitatione nostrâ Essentiâ suâ Communicatione essentiae in our apprehension in his own essence in the communication of his essence 1. Cogitatione nostrâ God may be said to be infinite and incomprehensible in our apprehensions as 1 Cor. 2. 9. Eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither hath it entred into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him From whence we cannot but argue thus Si non Divina multò minùs ipse Deus If not the things God hath prepared have entred into the heart of man much less God himself that prepared them Hence Aquinas denies that any created understanding can see the essence of God by a vision of comprehension 1. par qu. 12. ar 1. the reason is because his Infinity makes him incomprehensible and truly for our parts we must confess that we rather know of God what he is not then what he is so far are we from fully knowing him And so is it also with Religion we cannot know it at all till God hath enlarged our souls and after that enlargement we cannot know it perfectly for if we could admirabilis amoris excitaret sui we should be so in love with it as to love and desire nothing else for so it is with the Saints and Angels in heaven who fully knowing the excellency of loving and praising God can do nothing else but love and praise him 2. Essentiâ suâ God may be said to be infinite in his own essence and being and this Infinity of God is evidenced in his Omnipresence or Ubiquity whereby he is so present here as to be present every where and this belongs not to Angels no nor yet to the glorified body of Christ though united to his Deity for a bodie cannot lose its property which is to be in a place but it must also lose it self and no longer remain a body But this doth in some sort belong to Religion for what is spoken of Christs coming to judgement may also be fitly spoken of his coming into the soul of man S. Matth. 24. 27. As the lightning cometh out of the East and shineth even unto the West so shall also the coming of the Son of man be And indeed this alone is it which both makes proves the Church to be Universal or Catholick because the Spirit whereby it is quickened governed hath this ubiquity S. John 3. 8. The winde bloweth where it listeth and thou hearest the sound thereof but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth so is every one that is born of the Spirit Spiritus spirat ubi vult The Spirit breatheth where it listeth is not confined to a corner in Africa as said the Donatists nor to a chair at Rome as saith the Papist nor to a Family of Love as saith the Catharist and this argument alone is able to evince That Religion is of God not of man because of its Universal presence for such have been the distempers of men that there is now scarce any one visible Church in the Christian world which will allow any true Religion out of its own communion and what men do not easily allow they do easily wish so that not to allow it to be so is in effect to wish it were not so and consequently If Religion did depend upon the will of man for its enlargement it would in short time be confined to a very narrow compass of the world But blessed be God it is far otherwise and we may say of Religion as the Schole hath said of God the Authour of it it is every where by its essence and by its power and by its presence by its essence to fill the soul and to enlarge the heart by its power to over-rule the affections and by its presence to overlook and guide the actions and as Religion is thus always present to us though few take notice of it so the Religious man is always present to himself the good Christian imitating his Saviour Christ who is the same yesterday and to day and for ever Semper eadem may be the Motto of the soul that is truly Religious though not as to its action for even our prayers are not always the same though our necessities are but sometimes with greater sometimes with lesser fervency yet as to its resolution a sanctified man always resolves for the best though he doth not always perform what he resolves and he is always ready to give an answer of the hope that is in him if you look upon him in his resolution though if you look upon him in his action he may sometimes scarce seem to have any hope of eternity or if he have may seem not to regard that hope Wherefore it is best for us to believe that Religion is always present to it self and always present with us calling upon us to fear God and to keep his commandments for this belief will make God himself always present with us to sanctifie us here and to save us hereafter and will make us delight in the presence of his grace till we come to enjoy the presence of his glory Thus the Apostle saith that our blessed Saviour hath undertaken to present us holy unblameable and unreprovable in the sight of God Col. 1. 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to make us stand by in a readiness and Saint Iude recommends all faithfull souls to him that is able to present them faultless v. 24. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to make them stand in his presence he will not make them stand there who do not care to appear there what we most love we most willingly fancy as present with us so he that truly loves God most wishes his presence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is a great reverence which belongs to the presence of a man that overlooks us much more to the watchfull eye of eternity the Sun of righteousness and his overlooking countenance and over-spreading light if shame will not let us offend against a man on whom we can have but an accidental dependance for a temporal and momentany being how much more will it keep us from offending against God on whom we have an essential dependance both of our being and of our well being for ever 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 eye-service to men is forbidden Eph. 6. 6. because our masters on earth cannot be always present with us so that eye-service to man is but meer hypocrisie and dissimulation but it is not so towards God our master in heaven who is always present
to the earth with them 't is because they have not yet seen the light of Christ nor heard his voice saying I am Jesus whom thou persecutest Act. 9. But we shall the more clearly see the splendour of this Omnipotency if we do seriously consider how suddenly the light of the Gospel notwithstanding all oppositions and persecutions did shine to the remotest corners of the earth insomuch that Polidore Virgil saith lib. 2. Hist. Ab initio orti Evangelii Britanniam fidem recepisse That Great Britain received the Faith from the first preaching of the Gospel and yet Britain was looked upon as divided from all the habitable world penitus toto divisos orbe Britannos many years after Christ. But Gildas saith more expresly De excidio Britan. in Biblioth Patrum Tom. 5 Tempore ut scimus summo Tiberii Caesaris c. We know that Britain received the faith towards the latter time of Tiberius now the very last year of Tiberius was the year of our Lord 38 in Baronius his account so that it is evident if Gildas say true and he was worse then mad if he produced his scimus to broach a lie That Britain received the Christian Faith within five years after the resurrection of Christ and therefore sure not from the Church of Rome for that Church did not it self receive that faith till the 45 year of the Lord that is at least ten years after the resurrection of Christ as saith the same Baronius that in the year of Christ 45 on the 15 of the Calends of Febr. that is the 17 of our January the Church of Rome was instituted by S. Peter and the Popes chair erected there and on that day this prayer was used in ancient rituals Omnipotens sempiterne Deus qui ineffabili sacramento Apostolo tuo Petro principatum Romae urbis tribuisti unde se Evangelica Veritas per tota mundi regna diffunderet Praesta quaesumus ut quod in orbem terrarum ejus praedicatione manavit Universitas Christiana Devotione sequatur Bar. Anti-Christ 45. nu 1. And surely if the truth of the Gospel did go into all the world from Rome and came not to Rome till the 45 year of Christ there were at least ten whole years from the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ wherein the truth of the Gospel did lie as it were hid in a corner but this was certainly far otherwise and Baronius his old prayer must therefore be accounted a new invention and might easily from the very stile of it be so proved for sure very few parts of the now Christian world did stay so many years for the Christian Faith And if the Church of Rome were so unhappy to stay so long for Christianity that she might get Supremacy she may still be so unhappy for ought we know as to keep the Supremacy and lose the Christianity however certain it is that innumerable other Churches and amongst the rest this of Britain received the Christian Faith long before that time the Sun of Righteousness breaking forth like the Sun in the firmament not unto any one place or people alone but unto all What providence brought Joseph of Arimathea or any other Apostolical man to England before St. Peter came to Rome might perchance be accounted a curious but would certainly be a vain dispute 't is enough for the proof of the Omnipotency of the Christian Religion That the Saviour of the world who died for all did not suffer the distance of place to keep or intercept from any the speedy knowledge of his salvation The second branch of Eternity is All-sufficiency and therefore God as he is eternal is likewise all-sufficient as he is eternal of himself so he is all-sufficient in himself which all-sufficiency consists of these three parts 1. That he hath an absolute perfection 2. That he hath this perfection in and from himself 3. That this perfection is not onely sufficient for himself but also for all things besides himself First God hath an absolute perfection not onely of essence or being but also of operation or working for even in that grand Objection That the wicked do flourish and the righteous are oppressed appears a three-fold perfection of Gods operation First in the variety of his providence that he dispenseth both prosperity and adversity Secondly in the justice of his providence that he punisheth sinne in his own servants who though they can say their adversities are greater then other mens yet can they not say they are so great as are their own sins Thirdly in the mercy of his providence that he punisheth them onely temporally therein shewing his mercy to be greater then either their adversities or their sins And so also true Religion hath an absolute perfection both in its being and in its working that is both in its substance and in its exercise and what defects or faults are to be found in the exercise of it among any sort of Christians belong to the men not to the Religion Some will needs kneel to Images that were of their own making others will not kneel to God their Maker the one may go for the exercise of Superstition the other for the exercise of profaneness but neither can go for the exercise of Religion Secondly God hath his perfection in and from himself For who hath first given unto him and it shall be recompensed unto him again Rom. 11. 35. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who hath given first unto him We may and do and must give unto God O give thanks unto the Lord saith the Psalmist there 's our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our giving unto him but even in this is his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his giving first to us for he gives us the grace before we give him the praise we give but he gives first for he hath his perfection in and from himself we have ours in and from him And so hath Religion its perfection in and from it self whence it is called the beauty of Holiness Psal. 96. 9. The Christian Religion is the Beauty of earth even as Christ the Authour of it is the Beauty of Heaven And the Beauty of Holiness which is in Religion consists not in our adorning of Churches or in outward pomp and Ceremonies but in its own internal harmony and congruity to and conformity with him who is the very Beauty of Heaven the proper place of Holiness as being the habitation of the Holy One If thou come to worship thou receivest beauty from the holiness not the holiness beauty from thee thy soul is beautified thereby and made the Love of God and Angels but Religion was so of it self ever before as it is said Psal. 93. 6. Holiness becometh thy house for ever the holiness of Gods House is a becoming holiness and it is a holiness for ever a holiness that was before the creation of the world and a holiness that shall be after the end thereof Therefore outward ornament may not be pleaded for as matter
man should be wiser then his enemies for none are enemies to good men that have not first lost their wits as well as their honestie therefore he addeth further I have more understanding then all my teachers v. 99. And lest we should still object That the teachers are not always the wisest especially if they teach too soon before they have been diligent learners he addeth yet further I understand more then the ancients v. 100. that is then those that have been longest learners before they became teachers That 's the most profitable wisdome which makes a man wiser then his enemies for it keeps him from being circumvented that 's the most honourable wisdome which makes a man wiser then his teachers for it gives him a preeminence of understanding far above his condition that though he is called to be a learner yet he is enabled to be a teacher Lastly that 's the most infallible wisdome which makes a man wiser then the ancients for that gives him a preeminence of understanding above the condition of mortality which can attain to no greater wisdome then such as is gained by long travel of study confirmed by longer experience of years so that if we desire that wisdome which is most profitable most honourable and most infallible we must do as this holy man did converse more with God then with men for so he professeth v 104. Through thy precepts I get understanding we may see that understanding is to be gotten by studying the precepts of men but we cannot get it savingly but by studying the precepts of God for the prophet Daniel saith The light dwelleth with God Dan. 2. 22. and S. John saith He that loveth his brother abideth in the light what is this light but the truth or the true Religion which hath these two properties of light that 't is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it enlightens and reproves it enlightens the understanding by the knowledge of God it reproves the will the affections and the actions for the practise of evil Secondly Religion is in effect Omniscient because it makes us know all things besides our selves that is all things that are proper and profitable for us to know things wherein are the true comforts of this life the true blessings of the next so saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 2. 15. The spiritual man judgeth or discerneth all things the more he is spiritual the more he is able to discern the more he increaseth in Religion the more he increaseth in true wisdome and knowledge as the man in the Gospel when his eyes were first opened mistook men for trees but afterwards when he was perfectly cured he could distinguish both aright so the spiritual man at his first conversion hath but a confused knowledge of the things necessary to his salvation but afterwards he comes exactly to judge and to discern them all nor will his faith whereby he knows in part leave him till he come by degrees to a clear vision Let several knowing men all rejoyce in the excellencies of their several knowledges but let this be the priviledge onely of the religious man That he alone knows whom he hath beleeved and whom he may trust for he alone is able to know how God disposed of him before his life and how he will dispose of him after his death CHAP. VI. The assurance that we have of the substance of Religion in that it resembles God in his communicable Properties as Truth Goodness Purity and Liberty IT is the special priviledge of the good Christian that the same Religion doth make him imitate God here which will make him enjoy God hereafter for the same God who is the Authour of Religion is also the best pattern of it because Religion resembles him not onely per modum vestigii but also per modum Imaginis not onely as having his footsteps for so every creature represents the Creatour but also as having the exact lineaments and pourtraitures of his very Image so that Gods Service is best known by the knowledge of himself and the Properties of the true Religion are best declared by declaring the Properties of God The Incommunicable Properties have been already spoken of his Simplicity Infinity Immutability Eternity and the three branches or adjuncts thereof his Omnipotency All-sufficiency Omnisciency I now come to the communicable Properties of God which are especially these three Truth in his Understanding Goodness in his Will and Activity in his operative faculty answerable to his Truth and Goodness for the Intellective faculty is vain without the Affective the Affective without the Operative and therefore according to the proportion and perfection of the one is also necessarily the proportion and perfection of the other God first knows then wills then works As he knows so he wills not Irrationally As he wills so he works not Ineffectually And so is Religion very Intellective and very Affective and very Active or Operative these three properties are all joyned together Deut. 4. 6. Keep therefore and do for this is your wisdome and your understanding where we have wisdome for the Intellective keeping or observing for the Affective and doing for the Operative faculty of the soul Accordingly Divines tell us there are some vertues that are Catholick or Universal belonging to the whole worship of God in general and having alike influence upon all the Commandments or upon all the duties of Religion whether they concern God immediately in himself or mediately in his Image and these Catholick vertues are Wisdome and Prudence in the Understanding Integrity Alacrity and Constancy in the Will and Zeal and Perseverance in the action that Election Affection Action may all joyn together to glorifie him who is the first Truth to direct our Election the last Good to satisfie our Affection and the chiefest Excellency to excite and provoke our Action Wherefore it is the property of Religion to make a man more judicious more affectionate and more industrious then he was before though he had never so piercing a Judgement never so strong and vehement Affections never so industrious an Action For the soul of man though it consist of these three faculties the Intellective or knowing the Affective or desiring the operative or working the Intellective faculty whereby it knows what is to be done the Affective whereby it desires to do it and the Operative or Active whereby it sulfils that desire in doing yet this very soul doth not cannot rightly know or desire or do till it be throughly instructed exalted and quickned by Religion nay on the contrary all the while it continues irreligious it is stupid in knowledge perverse in affection and sluggish in action for though there is in all spirits a power of knowing what is true of desiring what is good and of effecting what they desire yet we cannot but acknowledge that these three faculties in all men who have their spirits clogged with sinfull flesh are very much weakened by sin and consequently must
and in the hand as Truth is opposed to Dissimulation or Hypocrisie Thirdly in its certainty or perseverance And of thy great mercy keep us in the same as Truth is opposed to uncertainty or to levity and inconstancy Religion then hath and must have a two-fold truth the first consists in a right apprehension whereby we believe the thing as it is the second in a right affection profession and action whereby we love and profess and do the thing as we beleeve and there cannot be a more religious prayer invented by the wit of Piety nor a more affectionate prayer practised by the zeal of Charity then that which is so remarkable both for its Piety and for its Charity in our own Church Collect 3. Sunday after Easter Almlghty God which shewest to all men that be in errour the light of thy Truth to the intent that they may return into the way of Righteousness there 's its piety towards God rightly descanting upon Gods intent in shewing the light of his truth to make men righteous not to make them inexcusable These things I say that ye might be saved S. Joh. 5. 34. not onely convinced saith our blessed Saviour and yet he spake to those who had not the love of God v. 42. Grant unto all them that be admitted into the fellowship of Christ Religion that they may eschew those things that be contrary to their profession and follow all such things as be agreeable to the same there 's its charity towards men affectionately desiring that as they have a Christian Communion so they may also have a Christian conversation lest their unchristian conversation destroy and disanull their Christian Communion which without doubt it hath done already in many ages of the Church and will do still to the worlds end unless God in his mercy fill our hearts more and more with this true piety towards himself and with this true charity one towards another And for this cause the Commandments are in the judgement of some Divines accounted practical Articles of the Christian Faith because if these be left out in our conversation what is true in it self of our Creed is as it were false to us since either our profession gives the lye to our apprehension and affection or our action to our profession for this is the difference betwixt speculative and practical truths speculativè practicè credibilia those things that we must believe speculatively and those that we must believe practically the first which are summed up in the Creed are truly believed if there be a conformity of the thing with the Understanding but the second which are summed up in the Decalogue are then onely truly believed when there is a conformity of the affection and of the profession and of the action with the belief thus they that worship Images do expunge the second and they that resist Magistrates do expunge the fifth Commandment if not out of their books yet at least out of their Faith in their Books they may be true believers but in their Lives they are in these particulars little less then Infidels Now see in what a miserable condition is the irreligious miscreant who so beleeves as to make void his own faith and so receives the truth as to make the truth it self a lie to him either for want of a sanctified affection in not loving it or for want of a sanctified action in not practising it and hence we may likewise see and must confess that not he who knows most of the doctrine of Faith is the best Beleever but he that most loves what he knows in speculatives and he that most practises what he knows in practicks so that a great Scholar may fully know the truth and yet to him it may be as a lye because he loves it not for to him it is what he desires it should be contrariwise an ignorant peasant may not fully know the truth and yet to him it may be the saving truth because he loves it for what is wanting in his head is made up by his heart O my soul glory not in the knowledge of Christ but in the love of that knowledge glory not in thy learning if thou art Mistress of any but in thy Religion to which thou oughtest to be a servant learning may make a man wise to ostentation but 't is onely Religion can make him wise to salvation Do not then with Pilate ask thy Saviour what is truth and then go away without his answer much less mayest thou turn to those Jews that help to crucifie him for if thou know these things happy art thou not because thou knowest them but if thou do them thy happiness consists not in knowing Christ but in practising him nor is it possible for a man to be long defective in his practise and not to be defective also in his knowledge since what is sinfull in the deliberate action is sinfull in the will and what is sinfull in the will is erroneous in the judgement or understanding and this is the reason that a man may be a heretick not onely in credendis but also in agendis not onely in Articles of Faith but also in Duties of Life nay indeed he cannot easily be a heretick in the Duties of Life and still remain truly Orthodox in the Articles of Faith as for example he that prays to a Saint or Angel in stead of God directly overthrows the first Commandment but indirectly also the first Article of his Creed I believe in one God for Prayer is a Sacrifice that may be offered onely unto God again he that wilfully dishonours his Governours whom God hath set over him directly overthrows the fifth Commandment but indirectly also the ninth Article of his Creed I beleeve the Holy Catholick Church the Communion of Saints for being a Lover of division he is not a true beleever of that Communion and this we may take for a general doctrine fitter to be received then opposed First that any practical errour which is against our duty towards God doth tend to a speculative errour against some part of the Creed which concerneth God as he that doth not honour God as God doth in effect deny him to be maker of heaven and earth therefore saith the Psalmist O come let us worship and fall down and kneel before the Lord our maker as if we could not truly beleeve him to be our maker if we will not worship him with all possible reverence and fear Secondly that any practical errour which is against our duty towards our neighbour doth tend against some Article of the Creed that hath relation to men as he that will not be subject to the authority of his lawfull governours Civil or Ecclesiastical doth in effect deny The Catholick Church and the Communion of Saints Thirdly and lastly that any practical errour against the duty which a man oweth unto himself doth tend against some Article of Faith that concerns himself as he that is a common
execution of justice yet is it from the affection of charity not the affectation of tyranny for the Church desires it not for her own sake but for their sakes who indeed want it and are in danger of perishing eternally for the want of it men that either have sinned notoriously or at least are inclined so to sin whilst they use their liberty for an occasion to the flesh Gal. 5. 13. or for a cloak of maliciousness 1 Pet. 2. 16. and 't is most evident that such men ought to be punished out of justice but are punished clearly out of charity for they are therefore put to open penance and punished in this world that their souls might be saved in the day of the Lord and that others admonished by their example might be the more afraid to offend But the less the Church can now exact this penance of us the more ought we to exact it of our selves and the rather because every notorious offender wrongs three together his God his neighbour and himself his God by his disobedience his neighbour by his disturbance himself by his distemper so that it matters not which he most condemns in himself whether his injustice or his irreligion since the same two integral parts of justice are also the two integral parts of Religion viz. to flee evil and to do good as Religion challengeth all the soul both in its intellective part to embrace God as the first Truth in its affective part to cleave to God as the last good so also doth justice challenge all the soul it challengeth the understanding to know which is the right way it challengeth the will to follow it Justitia quoad legem regulantem est in ratione seu intellectu sed quoad imperium quo opera regulantur secundùm legem est in voluntate saith Aquinas Justice as it propounds or prescribes the rule is seated in the reason or in the understanding but as it commands our obedience to the rule prescribed so it is seated in the affection or in the will whence it comes to pass that few are the number of the just as also of the religious because none can be either truly just or religious but he alone whose whole soul is sanctified but he alone who is rectified both in his reason and in his affection both in his understanding and in his will and it is no less then the work of a whole age both for Gods grace and for mans industry to rectifie either and hence it is that God is specially called the God of the just ex speciali curâ cultu from the special care he hath of them to protect them here and to reward them hereafter and from the special worship or service he hath from them none doing him service but the religious and none being religious but the just But whence then so much injustice among Christians even too much for the heathen that know not God to practise and for the infidels that beleeve not God to profess I answer merely from the want of Religion in which want they are too too often the greatest sharers who are or might be the onely possessours for Pagans can have but a negative want of godliness such as they could not compass not having the true light of God to shew it but Christians have moreover a privative want of godliness such as they might and should have compassed had they not bid defiance to that light which shewed it which makes the Spirit of God pronounce a severe sentence against them from the mouth of S. Peter saying It had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness or the way of justice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is the way of Religion then after they have known it to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them they are in a very bad condition who know not the way of righteousness but they are in a far worse who do know it but will not follow it they are under a fearfull doom who never turned to the holy commandment but their judgement will be intolerable who have wilfully turned from it and it is to be feared that God will ere long take from some Christians their Religion if he do not speedily give them more justice for he will not long endure that men should speculatively honour his Name but practically blaspheme it wherefore it is to be supposed that he will either make such Christians as regard not justice more just in their actions or less religious in their protestations that he will make them either afraid to violate the commands of Christ or ashamed to pretend to the profession of Christianity The next attribute we are now to consider in God is his Grace whereby he freely gives what is wanting to his creature for Grace is the participation of the divine nature and therefore above the condition of every man that hath it and much more above his deserts unless we will needs say that men may deserve to partake of the divine nature because they have corrupted and abused their own and this grace as it is in God is the actual communication of his goodness whereby he diffuseth himself to the sons of men as they are capable to receive him and never leaves to derive into them heavenly influencies till he hath instated them in the eternal bliss of heaven which goodness of God is more particularly revealed unto us in that covenant of Grace which God freely and favourably made with us when we were his enemies and therefore will certainly fulfill now we are his friends Ero Deus tuus seminis tui I will be thy God and thy seeds after thee for which promise there was no reason but his own undeserved grace though now his promise be a good reason of his performance and yet still his grace will approve it self to be free grace though we acknowledge that his promise hath made him a debter and where there is a debt there may seem to be matter of justice not of grace for we may not limit this universal proposition Promissum cadit in debitum A promise becomes a debt by distinguishing upon him that makes the promise and saying 'T is to be understood of the promises of men but not of God Promissio creaturarum non Dei as saith Paraeus in Ursinum pag. 158. for in truth Gods promise is more truly and universally a debt then the promise of any creature whatsoever because his promise is always of that which is really good for us and therefore undoubtedly claimable by us whereas the creature may promise what is not really good and consequently what we may not care to claim as for example All these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me was a large promise but yet could not be made a debt because it could not be made worth the claiming whereas Gods promise to Abraham but onely of one small corner of those
or to gossip and tattle like idle auditours but he sends all to learn the lessons that he there teacheth them and not so much to learn the words of those lessons as their meaning Go ye and learn what that meaneth that is go learn it intellectually to understand it cordially to love it practically to perform it that mercy is the chiefest ingredient of your Religion and ought to be the first of your sacrifices for he that will have mercy rather then sacrifice surely will accept of no sacrifice without mercy and this appears from the very occasion of citing the Text for it is cited S. Mat. 9. 13. to confute those that out of a mistaken zeal would needs be factious and turn Separatists accounting themselves too good to keep company with sinners It is cited S. Mat. 12. 7. to confute those that would needs be superstitious making an idol of the Sabbath and condemning the disciples for plucking the ears of corn on the Sabbath-day when they were an hungred and much more is it still to be cited against them amongst us who in the same practises are both factious and superstitious men that most talk of Religion yet least care for mercy for we see that we have now a Religion without sacrifice but we can never have a Religion without mercy Sow to your selves in Righteousness and reap in mercy break up your fallow ground for it is time to seek the Lord till he come and rain righteousness upon you Hos. 10. 12. there cannot be righteousness without mercy for both these make but one exhortation of seeking the Lord whom we must seek no less by mercy then by righteousness or we shall so seek him as not to finde him for even at his own altar will he not be found of us if we come thither to seek him without mercy before we are reconciled to our brother and therefore in this case we are plainly told it is in vain to offer our gifts which is in effect to say that God will not be there for to receive them S. Mat. 5. 23 24. nay even in heaven which is his throne will he not be found by us unless we come with mercy to seek him there and therefore the benediction of purity Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God presupposeth the benediction of mercy Blessed are the mercifull for they shall obtain mercy for were it possible for a soul to be in heaven and there to see God which had not obtained mercy which had not its sins forgiven that soul could not be truly blessed First because it could not love God looking upon him as not reconciled in Christ and therefore not as a loving Father but as an impartial Judge for if to whom little is forgiven the same loveth little S. Luk. 7. 47. then by the same rule of proportion where is no forgiveness there can be no love supposing that there is sin which needs to be forgiven Secondly because that soul could not love it self as being odious and abominable whilest under the guilt of sin for even the damned souls in hell though they do not contract the guilt of new sins for then unrighteousness would be immortai yet forasmuch as they are still under the guilt of their old sins which could not be washed away but onely by that bloud which they trampled under their feet and by that repentance which they would not let come near their hearts and being not washed away still remains upon their souls cannot but be eternally odious and abominable to themselves because they cannot but be eternally under the guilt of sin so that we may infer with good Logick and better Divinity that if the reward of the pure in heart which is to see God without the reward of the mercifull which is to obtain mercy be no blessedness then surely purity without mercy is no righteousness for it is not possible that true righteousness should be without a reward And indeed it is not possible that true righteousness should be without mercy whence it is that the Seventy Interpreters do render the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is mercies by the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is holinesses as appears Isa. 55. 3. cited by S. Paul Act. 13. 34. the prophet had said I will give you the mercies but the Septuagint and from them S. Paul did say I will give you the holy or just things they both did mean the same gift though the one called it mercy the other called it holiness and indeed in the Hebrew the same is the good and the mercifull men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and S. Paul tels us that peradventure for such a good man some would even dare to dye Rom. 5. 7. scarcely for a righteous man will one die yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die by the righteous man he means 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the man rigorously just that would do no wrong but by the good man he means 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the man piously mercifull that would do all manner of good and this man he accounts so obliging that peradventure some would not stick to lose their own lives so they might save his and by thus comparing the righteous man and the good man he shews that our Saviours love to us was beyond compare who was pleased to die for us when we were yet sinners that is so far from being good men that we were not so much as righteous men so far from having the positive righteousness of doing good that we had not so much as the privative righteousness of not doing evil Thus doth the Apostle prefer him that is righteous according to the rules of mercy before him that is righteous according to the rules of Justice from the example of God himself who delighted in the righteousness of mercy above the righteousness of justice and therefore was not so zealous to commend his love of justice in destroying us as his love of mercy in saving us go and do thou likewise is the use that the best Preacher that ever was either in heaven or in earth makes of this doctrine S. Luk. 10. 37. when the answer had been made that he was the neighbour to the wounded man who had shewed him mercy it follows presently then said Jesus go and do thou likewise and they that do willingly hear this Preacher do as readily obey him having a desire that mercy may rejoyce against judgement in them here because they have a hope that mercy shall rejoyce against judgement for them hereafter and this is the reason of the Apostles inference Eph. 4. 32. Be ye kinde one to another tender-hearted forgiving one another even as God for Christs sake hath forgiven you this priviledge and prerogative we men have above the angels that God hath forgiven us very much when as he hath forgiven them nothing they share equally with us in all Gods other attributes but in
shall our heavenly Father give the holy Spirit to them that ask him S. Luk. 11. 13 the word Father is there titulus argumentosus not so truly a word as 't is an Argument if father be the antecedent how shall not giving the holy Spirit be the consequent and yet 't is observable that no such gift is asked explicitely in our Lords most holy Prayer to which this promise hath immediate relation to teach us that much more is asked in that most holy prayer then is mentioned and yet much more is given then is asked when we do indeed say Our Father with a true filial affection Thirdly True Religion teacheth us to honour God as a Father by loving him with all our strength with all our soul with all our might for every childe doth love his natural Father unless himself be a monster of nature and doth therefore love him because he is principium vitae because he is the beginning of his natural life much more do the children of God love thir spiritual Father who hath be gotten them again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that sadeth not away reserved in heaven for them 1 Pet. 1. 3 4. our fathers here do beget us but to dead hopes for we are born to dye and are often unable to maintain us when we are begotten but our Father in heaven hath begotten us to a lively hope or to the hope of everlasting life and is no less able to preserve life then he was to give it for he hath an incorruptible and undefiled inheritance that fadeth not away reserved in heaven to bestow upon his children so that he is infinitely more to be loved not onely as the giver of life but also as the preserver of it thus doth the true Religion teach us to honour God as a Father by Faith Hope and Charity and it doth also teach us to honour him as a Master by due and lowly reverence for to worship and reverence and to fear God is to take and acknowledge God for God because it is to take and acknowledge him for the chiefest excellency for reverence alwaies presupposeth excellency and therefore according to the proportion of reverence is the opinion of excellency Let me then shew what opinion I have of Gods excellency by my reverence and let me worship and fall down and kneel before the Lord my maker and not onely my maker to call for my lowest reverence but also my Master to quell and punish mine irreverence for though I may easily draw near him with my lips yet I can hardly draw near him with my knee whilest my heart is far from him there is indeed the same natural distance of the knee and of the mouth from the heart but not the same moral distance for so the mouth is much farther from the heart then is the knee the profession of godliness may be altogether without the heart but not so the practise of it 't is much easier for a man to be an hypocrite in his words then in his deeds in his pretences then in his practises for actually to serve God is a matter of labour and vexation even in regard of the outward man who all that while is withheld from serving himself either in his profit or in his pleasure but verbally to serve God that is to talk of serving him is nothing at all it being as easie a peece of lip-labour to say to God as it is to say to man Your humble Servant and yet still be far from doing him any service thus did that Son who being commanded to go work in the vineyard presently answered I go Sir but went not S. Matth. 21. 30. and those who are most ready to promise their fealty and homage to their master in heaven are too too often least ready to perform their promises which is the cause of that reiterated complaint in the Text this people honoureth me with their lips but their heart is far from me a complaint that needs still be much repeated because it is still so little regarded for setting aside this empty honour of our lips and what have we left but Ichabod where is the glory for in truth the glory is departed from our Israel the ark of God is taken nay trampled under our feet and all this irreligion and profaneness must needs be where men will have a Religion that shall so honour God as not also fear him that shall pretend to honour him as a Father but not care to fear him as a Master for a Son that refuseth to be a servant will soon refuse to be a Son and he that once begins not to fear his Father will soon begin not to honour him and a servant that cares not to continue a servant by fearing his Master will easily not care to turn an enemy by provoking him for he cannot desire to please him if he do not fear to displease him either by disrespect to his person or by disobedience to his commands and therefore it is very necessary that we all think of Gods Majesty which is able to confound us no less then of his mercy which is willing to save us and come into his presence with fear and reverence to acknowledge his incomprehensible greatness no less then with Faith Hope and Love to acknowledge his infinite and undeserved goodness thus doth Hierotheus speak of God in the language of the divine Arcopagite libro de divin nom cap. 1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his being is above all being to shew the greatness of his Majesty his loving is above all loving to shew the goodness of his mercy which made Damascene undertaking to write of the Orthodox Faith after he had begun his first Chapter de Deo immediately give this Title to his second Chapter de Effabilibus Ineffabilibus Cognoscibilibus Incognoscibilibus because the things concerning God are both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as we can neither know nor express and hence it is that our knee is fitter to proclaim the Majesty of God then is our tongue for the tongue cannot express what the man doth not know but the knee can and will acknowledge the Majesty of God though we cannot know it if so be we do indeed but truly beleeve it and it is observable that in the 99 Psalm after the Psalmist had declared the greatness of Gods Majesty he exhorts men to glorifie him in their words but much more in their deeds for he calls upon them but once to praise him v. 3. let them praise thy great and terrible Name but he calls upon them twice to worship him v. 5. Exalt ye the Lord our God and worship at his footstool for he is holy and again v. 9. Exalt the Lord our God and worship at his holy hill for the Lord our God is holy taking it for granted that the Name
of God was more to be magnified by reverence and adoration though we spake but little then by all the loud praises and hymns which we could utter whilest we continued guilty of irreverence and S. Paul setting forth the condition of a true convert makes him reverent in his behaviour as well as zealous in his thanksgivings for saith he falling down on his face he will worship God and report that God is in you of a truth he falls down and worships there 's his reverence he reports that God is in you of a truth there 's his thanks-giving and if either of these be wanting for ought we can see by the Text he is yet no true convert but is still in the same state of ignorance and of unbelief as when he first came into the Church to hear those that prophesied But the better to set forth the reverence that is not to be parted from the true Religion I will briefly run over those ten Names of God which S Hierome hath collected together in one of his Epistles to Marcellus ep 136. for there is not one of those Names but will strike a terrour into the soul of man when he comes to bow himself before the most High God which is the reason that not one of all these Names is once mentioned in the Book of the Canticles Quia in hoc spirituali Epithalamio merito ea nomina praetermittuntur quae ad incutiendum terrorem accommodata erant because that Song of Songs being made to express the marriage joy of the soul with Christ it was not thought fit to use any of those terrible names of God which might occasion the interruption of that joy The first Name of God is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rendred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the LXX but by Aquila according to its Etymology 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the strong one this Name Exod. 20. 5. is joyned with Jealousie in that very Commandment wherein God requires our Religion to be with reverence as well as without Idolatry 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a jealous God he is God and able to punish us he is jealous and will not let us scape unpunished no nor our children after us if we shew that we hate him by loving irreligion whether it be by superstition or by profaneness whether by idolatry or by irreverence for we may certainly bring a vengeance and a curse not onely upon our selves but also upon our posterity by our irreverence which is against the positive precept no less then by our Idolatry which is against the negative precept of the second Commandment The second Name of God is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and this Name we finde Hab. 1. 12. in these words Art thou not from everlasting O Lord my God mine Holy One 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 My God and mine Holy One are put as terms convertible for he is but my Idol not my God unless he be also mine Holy One that is one whom I conceive to be holy and rejoyce that he is so the profane person cannot deny God to be the Holy One though he rejoice not in his Holiness he would fain make a division betwixt these two properties of God Power and Holiness he would either have God a strong one without holiness to allow profaneness or he would have him a holy one without strength that he might not avenge it But we must look upon his strength as the fortress and bullwork of his holiness that if we will not learn to detest profaneness and irreverence because of his holiness yet we may learn to dread it because of his strength The third Name of God is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we meet withall in the first words of the Bible Gen. 1. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dii creavit where is a noun of the plural number signifying God with a verb of the singular which strange Syntaxis hath one gloss among the Jews another among the Christians among the Jews it is taken for an argument of the greatness of Gods majesty for so saith Aben Ezra 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the holy tongue that is in the Hebrew it is a course or way of honour to speak of a great person in the plural number to wit thereby to intimate his greatness but among the Christians this same manner of speech is taken for an argument of the Holy Undivided Trinity The noun in the plural number signifying the plurality of Persons the verb in the singular number the Unity of essence we may accordingly make an excellent use of either gloss in our devotions for if we seriously consider the greatness of Gods majestie we will be sure to keep our distance in our prayers and not be guilty of that undecent and ungodly familiarity which begetteth a contempt of God if at lest it be not begotten of it for it will certainly end in a slighting of his majestie if it do not begin in it This ungodly familiarity with God teacheth us to offer that to God which doth cost us nothing contrary to his resolution who was a man after Gods own heart and therefore best acquainted with his liking 2 Sam. 24. 24. Nay but I will buy it of thee at a price neither will I offer burnt-offerings unto the Lord my God of that which doth cost me nothing for indeed such offerings do but proclaim a contempt of God as appears Mal. 1. 7. They that offer polluted bread do in effect say The table of the Lord is contemptible and they are accordingly sent to Court to learn better manners and better language v. 8. Offer it now unto thy Governour will he be pleased with thee or accept thy person the Chalde Paraphrase saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to thy King but the Hebrew word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to thy under Governour and indeed the Jews had no other after their captivity offer such stuff as this but to the captain that is set over thee to thy Governour who is no King but himself under command and he will reject thy gift and scorn and disdain thee and how then darest thou offer it unto thy God who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords how darest thou offer the blind the lame the sick to him for a sacrifice which is thy bounden duty when as thou darest not offer it to thy Governour as a free and a voluntary gift we may offer unto God blind prayers for want of premeditation which is the souls fore-sight lame prayers for want of good affections which are the feet of the soul and sick prayers by reason of our undigested devotions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so I conceive it should be read in Hesâ—chius and not in two words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He is sick whose stomach is oppressed with crudities and inconcoctions so that he cares not for his meat and is besides clean out of temper and such are sick prayers which are crude indigested distempered prayers thus we may offer
by a gracious dependance on Gods truth and faithfulness and expecting in his good time a comfortable issue of his promises Such waiters whose God is the Lord Jehovah in whom they trust on whom they depend and whom they constantly obey not departing from his precepts when he seems to have forsaken them in their greatest distresses such men are the prime the onely Christians who have in their soul the seal of Gods grace to assure them of their future happiness O thou whose Name is the great Jehovah and rulest all things in heaven and earth send down from heaven the habitation of thy glory thine Holy Spirit into our hearts and so possess our souls with an awful fear of thy Majesty and a filial love of thee for thy goodness and mercy that we abhorring all things that may displease thee and obeying thy precepts may in the end of our days obtain the end of our hopes and the fruit of thy promises which is the salvation of our souls and eternal bliss through the merits of our blessed Redeemer our Lord Christ Jesus The tenth and last Name of God is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 schaddai by which God often stiled himself when he spake unto the Patriarchs to uphold their spirits and sustain their faith in the midst of their troubles Gen. 17. 1. the Lord appeared unto Abraham and said unto him I am 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the same words he bespake Jacob Gen. 35.11 hence it was that they also when they were to speak or make mention of God often used that Name or word Thus Isaac when he blessed Jacob Gen. 28.3 said the God whose Name is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bless thee and make thee to encrease and multiply so Jacob said to Joseph the God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 appeared to me in Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me As for the notion or meaning of the Name Galatinus l. 2. c. 17. out of R. Moses the Egyptian and Algazel determines it that it is a compounded term and made up of these two parts or particulars 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is in composition the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 qui and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies sufficient and sufficiency so that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the whole latitude or acception of it denotes the alsufficiency of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 qui in se à se sufficientiam abundantiam omnimodam habet it a ut nullius ope indigeat i. e. who in himself and from himself hath a sufficiency and abundance of all good things and needs not the help of any creature There is in God a fallness of power whereby he can do what he will his will being the onely rule and bound of his power therefore the Septuagint do often render this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Job 8.3 by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he that doth or worketh all things so in our English Translation doth the Almighty pervert justice As there is in many a man an empty fullness when bladder-like his soul is blown up with windy fancies of having what he hath not or of more knowledge then he truly hath so in God there is a fullness without any the least defect or degree of emptiness in God and Christ who is God and man in one person there is as the Schools speak Plenitudo repletiva and diffusiva or plenitudo abundantiae and redundantiae and abounding fullness because no good thing no gift nor grace is wanting in him and a redounding fullness because what gifts or graces soever be in us they are all derived to our souls from him the ever-living and overflowing fountain and spring of them from whom they slow into our souls per Spiritum tanquam per canalem through the spirit as it were a conduit-pipe without any loss of them in him or without any the least diminution and of his fullness have we all received Joh. 1. 16. a fullness without any want argues a great perfection quod plenè habetur perfectè totalitèr habetur Aquin Now if men through the door of faith opened by Gods blessed Spirit did see the fullness the excellency and alsufficiency of God it would so fill them with admiration joy and content that having a communion with God by his sanctifying spirit they would care for nothing else they considering what the Lord is and beholding his glorious face in the glass of his Attributes viz. his Wisedom Power and Justice c. upon this consideration they would say with the Prophet David The Lord is on our side or with us we will not therefore fear what man can do unto us Psa 118. 6. the Lord is ours therefore we can lack nothing that is good for us and if the Lord be thine then his Power is thine to sustain thee under any cross to redeem thee from troubles to help thee in distress to succour thee in the greatest needs and to support thy weakness in the performance of any duties his Wisedom too is thine thou hast an interest in it it is thy portion so that if thou desirest to be instructed in the knowledge of his word to understand those hidden mysteries which are contained in it if thou openest thy mouth to him in prayer he will open thine eyes that thou shalt see mirabilia leg is the wondrous things of his Law Psa. 119. 18. and be also wise unto salvation 2 Tim. 3. 15. his Justice likewise is thine to vindicate thee when thou art injured if thou committest thy cause unto him and to clear thine innocency when thou art falsly traduced by the malevolent and to deliver thee out of the hands of the oppressour so for his Truth and Holiness the former is thine to make good his promises of blessings in this life and of happiness in that to come if by faith and full affiance thou dependest on him so the latter i. e. his Holiness is thine to sanctifie thy corrupt nature and to free thee as from the guilt so from the power of sin This is the portion of all the Sons and servants of God who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a God al-sufficient who can and will do for us more then either we desire or deserve if we wholly rest and rely upon his goodness Happy is the man who is in such a case in so blessed a condition as to have a close union and near communion with the great God of heaven or to speak in the Prophet Davids phrase who hath the Lord for his God Psa. 144. 15. whose alsufficiency they atterly deny who worship any other God as did the Gentiles who multiplied Deities and sacrificed to more then one such are Polutheists who divide the glory of Gods excellencies amongst those petty Numens even as they are no other then practical Athiests and truly worship none who through infidelity question Gods alsufficiency for if he be God he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
of the souls affection yet not so quick as at any time to go without its errand Secondly It is to honour them and that not cursorily or meerly for fashion sake but with the engagement of the soul to know them distinctly and to perform them diligently there is an outward honour in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in eye-service or the service of the man but there is moreover an inward honour in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in soul-service or the service of the minde the first is in all manner of serving and the second is peculiarly in observing Thirdly and lastly It is to obey them for observation is vain where it is not active and idle where it is ineffectual which makes our Saviour joyn observing and doing both together S. Mat. 23. 3. that observe and do and consequently the Preacher here bids us so observe the Kings Commands as to be sure not to leave them undone for then our observation will but make us guilty of the greater contempt the wise Historian sets those down for little better then a mutinous rabble of whom he saith Interpretari magìs quà m exequi they were more ready to interpret then to execute all commands truly to observe a command is to love honour and obey it and not onely so but also with the greatest patience as 't is serving with the greatest diligence as 't is observing with the greatest patience as 't is serving for what more tedious then wholly to attend upon anothers will and pleasure yet this you must do if you are bound to serve for that is to wait and with the greatest diligence as 't is observing for wherein can you be negligent if you may not once close much less turn away your eye yet this you may not do if you must observe for that 's to watch as then this word intimates waiting it requires all possible patience and as it intimates watching it requires all possible diligence and yet neither patience nor diligence can be so great as is the reason of them both in the next words and that in regard of the Oath of God where Aben-Ezra's gloss is most admirable a Jew writing to the admiration yet much more as the case now stands with us to the shame of Christians the Preacher saith he useth two such arguments as are both unresistable the one is the word of the Kings mouth the other is the word of thine own mouth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for what hath proceeded from the Kings mouth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for what hath proceeded from thine own mouth that is to say because he hath commanded and because thou hast covenanted so to do sc. to be true and faithfull to thy King and the same Doctour goes on as admirably 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for a King among men will not acquit him that rejects his word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and much less will the King of truth the King of Kings hold him guiltless that taketh his Name in vain here is a probable conjecture that among the Jews there was some kinde of Oath made unto their Kings not unlike to our Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy there is mention made of a League or Covenant that King David made with the Elders of Israel in Hebron before the Lord when they came to anoint him King 2 Sam. 5. 3. which Covenant was reciprocal without question that David should not molest them for making Ishbosheth King for two years and after Sauls death yet staying five years longer before they came to anoint David King over them saith Kimchi and consequently that they should play no more such pranks with him be no more false to nor averse from his Soveraignty though mention is made onely of David in the Covenant as of the chiefest party yet the Elders did swear too by Kimchi's own confession though he record not the words of their part of the Oath and indeed it were strange if a Nation instructed in the Law of God should against that Law be forward to binde it self under an Oath not to do good to such or such a man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Philo of his own Countreymen and not be much more forward to swear homage and allegiance to their Kings which that Law did oblige them to but 't is sufficient for us that the Jews did think themselves bound without any peculiar Oath by vertue of their general Covenant with God To be true and faithfull to their Kings for that the fifth commandment was one of those ten to which they had vowed their obedience nay it was indeed the first commandment of promise and they looked by their obedience to inherit the promisedland and if that nation did think so religiously of the obligation of an Oath or Vow as to pretend that for an actual breaking of a commandment as it was answer enough for them why they did not relieve their father or mother to say they had sworn by Corban by the gift on the Altar not to do it Mat. 15. 5. what will become of us who have sworn to the keeping of this commandment to the honouring of our Father and rather then keep the commandment will break our Oath Jews Pharisees and Sadducees that deny the resurrection shall rise up in judgement against this generation and shall condemn it for they made the keeping of an Oath their pretence for breaking the fifth commandment but we have nothing save the breaking of an Oath or rather of many Oaths to alledge for our selves in that we have so shamefully broken it and can onely say we have made our selves guilty of perjury that we might be guilty of rebellion what have we not as great hopes as had the Jews have we not as great Promises as they had why then should we have a less obedience To be undutiful is not the way to obtain our inheritance in earth much less in heaven especially since God looks upon this grand undutifulness to kings as if it were unto himself And we may challenge all Christendom to shew us any nation or people that is not fully as defective in Conscience as it is in Allegiance Jannes and Jambres that first withstood Moses Gods immediate Vicegerent though not to them and then resisted the truth having left this unhappy legacie to all their followers that as they are men of corrupt minds for want of obedience so they are reprobate concerning the faith for want of a good Conscience God will not so far countenance rebellion as to let the true Religion long continue and much less thrive under it and 't is the general observation of all sound Divines that the Scripture doth most commonly joyn the fear of God with Obedience to Kings as 1 Pet 2. 17. Fear God Honour the King not supposing the one possible without the other and to shew it is not they are both joyned together in one act of Fear Prov. 24. 21. My son Fear God and the King and meddle not with them