own stedfastness and the effectual way to That is to grow in Grace as he there exhorts us Not to content our selves with this that we are not any thing worse than we use to be but to be constantly advancing from strength to strength and to be carefull that our last days may be our best too All the use S. Paul makes of the Doctrine he had taught of a Resurrection is to be stedfast and unmoveable and the effectual way to that is always to abound in the work of the Lord. So again we may infer from his Epistle to the Ephesians The onely way for us Impotent and Silly men to be able to stand against the wiles of the Devil is to put upon our selves the whole Armour of God To be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might Implying a full Trust in God and as full a Distrustfulness of our selves A putting our selves out of our own into his Protection Which yet we cannot till convinced of this great truth that in our selves as of our selves there dwelleth no good thing No not so much as Inclination to any thing that is Good No not so much as Aversation from any thing that is Evil. That our Destruction if it happens is of our selves But all our sufficiency of him alone who stiles himself by way of Eminence the All-sufficient And hereunto we are to add this most pertinent supplication which must be fervent and without ceasing that he will be pleas'd to work in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure that so having him for our Coadjutor in the language of our Apostle we may work out our Salvation with fear and trembling And that at the final consummation of all our days he may crown his own Gifts and Graces in us Which God of his Mercy dispose us for for the Glory of his Name and for the worthiness of his Son To whom with the Father in the unity of the Spirit be Glory and Thanksgiving for ever and ever Amen OF PEACE AND HOLINESS UNITED As aequally required to Our SALVATION HEB. 12. 14. Follow Peace with all Men and Holiness without which no Man shall see the Lord. § 1. AS there are but two Ends at which our Studies are to be levell'd let our Parts and our Learning be what they will to wit a Rectitude in our Knowledge and an Exactness in our Religion the first of which is still subservient and has a Tendency to the second so there are but Two things in which This Second does chiefly stand to wit a Rectitude of Faith and the Truth of Practice The Former does consist in the Belief of two Things too to wit That God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself And as such 〈◊〉 the Rewarder of Them that diligently seek him The Later lies chiefly in two Things more Our helping the fatherless in their Affliction and the keeping of ourselves unspotted from the World Nor can we doubt whether in These consists the substance of our Religion because besides that out of These our several Duties may be deduc'd by the light of Reason we have Authority also of Scripture to wit S. Paul and S. James to assure us of it Then why should we compass Sea and Land to meet with Catechists and Preachers and Commentators and School-Divines a world of Fathers and of Councils and Ecclesiastical Historians and an hundred other Instruments for the completing of a Christian however necessary they are for the accomplishment of a Divine whilst Christianity in it self is a thing so easie and may easily be held in so little Room Had it been suffer'd to abide within its primitive Simplicity in but few and plain Precepts for Life and Practice as well as in few and plain Aphorisms for Faith and Doctrin the Yoke of Christ had still been easie and his Burthen had still been light and little Children had still been qualified for a Discipleship under Christ which yet is now made too difficult for some of the subtil'st and the learnedst of all our Jesuiticall and Sorbon Doctors Nothing has certainly been so mischievous to the true Body of Religion as the making so many Mysteries where God was pleas'd to have so few vexing the Articles of our Faith with curious Quaestions and Disputes and a large Catalogue of Additions as for example in the Creed of Pope Pius Quartus most obstructive to the Vnity and Peace of Christians So that by accident at least and through the Lust of her several Lovers I mean the Avarice of some and the Pride of others the charming Beauty of Religion has contributed too much to the Ruin of her She having been courted as unhappily as Plutarch's fair Arisloclea who was so plucked at by the Rivalry of Calisthenes and Strato and by the Partizans of them Both that to their shame and sorrow too She lost her Life in the Contention § 2. Now considering how much 't is easier to have an Excellence in the Knowledge than in the Exercise or Practice of Christianity And that without our Indeavours of living up to such Knowledge All our learning will but light us into the Territories of Darkness Little or Nothing will be got by our most plausible Attainments besides the Meagre Satisfaction of going learnedly to Hell and the Priviledge to be beaten with many stripes whilst the more ignorant Transgressor must be contented with a few I cannot think of a fitter Text for the giving advantage to my Design of setting up the most Vsefull and Real learning in the place of That learning wherewith the Devil is oft adorn'd to use the words of S. Jerome touching the Excellence of Pelagius than this important Exhortative of our learned Author to the Hebrews recommending to them the Study of Peace and Holiness as That on which there dependeth as it is followed or despis'd an unspeakable Proportion of Bliss or Misery These are the Sciences and the Arts which will make us wise unto Salvation We are to ballance all our Knowledge with these two Weights whereby to preserve it from puffing up These are to take up our Meditations on These our Souls are to be fixt These are the Beauties we are to court with the greatest Love These the Riches we are to covet with greatest Avarice These the Dignities to be sought for not onely with the greatest but best Ambition And therefore every thing else being laid aside at least with a comparative though not an absolute Neglect we are to give our selves wholly to the Study of These Two Following Peace with all men and Holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. § 3. Though the Text at first Hearing may seem as easie as it is short yet there is hardly any thing in it which stands not in need of an Explication And The English Translation is so much harder than the Original as that we cannot reach the One without recourse unto the other
properly then a Man who is so destitute of Reason as wholly to be void of Religion too And for any one to Teach as the Monster of Malmesbury has been permitted to doe in Print that there is no Spirit at all or that there is no incorporeal Substance two Expressions of the same Thing what is it but to pluck up all Religion by the Root 'T is publickly to set up a School of Atheism For God if any thing is a Spirit not for This reason onely because our Apostle S. John affirms it whom the Hobbists will not believe but for this other reason also which even our Hobbists cannot but yield to that supposing a God there is or that 't is but possible for him to be He must be Infinite and Indivisible and yet we know He can be neither if He is any way Corporeal For All Corporeal things have Parts and so by consequence are divisible and so by consequence are finite And for God to be finite or divisible is for God not to be God the worst and grossest of Contradictions From whence it follows unavoidably that for any one to teach and to teach in publick not publickly from the Pulpit but much more publickly from the Press that an Incorporeal Substance is in it self a Contradiction the Positive Doctrine of the Leviathan is publickly to open a School of Atheism It being publickly to teach There is no Spirit and by a Consequence unavoidable There is no God For every thing that is is either an Accident or a Substance What is neither is not And every Substance a nobler sort of Being then any Accident can be is either Corporeal or Incorporeal That denominates a Body and This a Spirit To say that God is the former implies the horridest Contradiction as hath been shewn and so He must be the latter by undeniable Consecution To say He is not a Spirit or not an Immaterial Substance is neither better nor worse then to say He is not It is to say There is no such Thing § 2. Against the dangerous Contagion of the premised two Extremes S. John in this Text has timely given us Two Caveats one express'd and another imply'd First 't is express'd in plain terms that seeing many false Prophets or false Pretenders to the Spirit are gone out into the World we are bound for that Reason not to believe Every Spirit Next 't is as evidently imply'd as if it were expressed in words at length that though Many Prophets are False we must not thence reckon that None are True as though many Lines are crooked we must not thence argue that none are strait seeing every crooked Line must needs presuppose and imply a strait one Nor may we sottishly disbelieve the Spirit of Holiness and Truth for fear of believing with too much ease a Spirit of Errour and Vncleanness But as my Text is in the middle between an important Dehortation Believe not every Spirit and as important a Reason of it for many false Prophets are gone out into the World so our Course is to be steer'd in a middle way betwixt the Scylla of Credulity and the Charybdis of Vnbelief We must examin all Pretenders and try of what sort they are We must get a Lapis Lydius whereby to learn the true difference betwixt the two sorts of Spirits in the sixt Verse of this Chapter the Spirit of Truth and the Spirit of Errour or to express it without the Metonymie which our Apostle here useth betwixt a True and False Prophet betwixt a man of God and a Dreamer of Dreams betwixt a Theopneust and a Daemoniack betwixt a reall Possessor of Divine Revelations and a phantastick Pretender to them For as there were Prophets in the Old Testament both True and False so are there also in the New As there were Spirits under the Law too many to be good so there are also under the Gospel There was in That a familiar Spirit Lev. 20. 27. a lying Spirit 1 King 22. 22. and a Spirit of Perverseness Isa 19. 14. There is in This a foul Spirit a deaf and dumb Spirit Mar. 9. 25. a Spirit of Errour and of Delusion 2 Thess 2. 11. 1 Joh. 4. 6. a Spirit of Slumber Rom. 11. 8. Still the more and the worse the unclean Spirits are the greater need we have to Try them And though there are also as many Good Spirits as there are Angels who never fell yet all their Goodness is but derivative from the one Spirit of God who is God the Spirit To Him are ascribed the famous Gifts 1 Cor. 12. 4. And amongst all the severall Gifts wrought by one and the same Spirit the Discerning of Spirits is worthily reckon'd to be a chief v. 10. Which Gift of Discerning 'twixt good and bad Spirits as all the rest The Spirit of God divides to every man severally as He will v. 11. to some in a greater and to some in a lesser measure And in this Gift S. Peter did very mnch excell S. Philip. For so 't is obvious to collect from the 8 th of the Acts by comparing the 13 th with the 23 th verse § 3. Now whatever can be meant by the Subjects of Triall we are to make whether Churches or Church-men whether Prophecies or Prophets whether Doctrins or Doctors whether Inspirations or men Inspir'd or every one of these equally however different they may be or inconsistent with one another 't is plain they All pretend alike unto the same Spirit of God And therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Try and prove them says our Apostle whether they are what they pretend whether really they are Gold or do but eminently glister whether they speak by Commission and as the Oracles of God or onely run ere they are sent inspir'd by Avarice and Ambition and by the Impulse of the Devil whether they teach the sound Doctrins of Christ's Apostles and of his Church whose Faith and Doctrins we are to follow or are but some of the foolish Prophets in the 13 th of Ezekiel who follow their own Spirit and prophesie out of their own Hearts are like the Foxes in the Desarts have spoken Vanity and seen Lies saying The Lord saith and the Lord hath not sent them In any case we must try them of what sort they are § 4. Nor must we onely try Them but we must also try the Rule by which they All are to be tried For severall Tests and Rules of Triall who are true or false Teachers and which Doctrins are right or wrong have been lately set up to the hurt of Souls by the Two sorts of Enemies whereof I spake in the beginning to wit the Pretenders to Enthusiasm and the Disciples of the Leviathan The first of these will allow of no other Test than the Sturdiness and Strength of their own Perswasion which it is their will and pleasure to call The Testimony within them And by running in a Circle they grow so giddy
that as much as in us lies we ought to be affected like God himself and so by a necessary consequence we are to hate those that hate Him because they are such as are hated by Him For so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does very naturally import although it is not observ'd in our English Bibles And therefore by this the Prophet David seeks to prove his Affection to God Almighty Do not I hate them O Lord that hate Thee yea I hate them right sore Or as the New Translation hath it yea I hate them with a perfect hatred Why then saith our Apostle Follow Peace even with All men not excepting the Worst of all § 10. We see the Objection is very specious But strike one Text against another as a flint against steel and there will leap from both together both Fire and Light too The Answer to it is to be taken from Rom. 12. 18. and thence forwards unto the end If it is possible as much as in you lies live peaceably with all men He does not peremptorily say live peaceably with all men at all adventure let the Case be what it will But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if it is possible and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as much as in you lies Whereby 't is evidently imply'd that in diverse hard cases it is Impossible it does not lie in our power to be at Peace with all the world All that God requires of us is to imploy our poor utmost in order to it Whilst we hate the Malefactor we must have charity for the Man so as to pity his being sick of habitual Sin and supplicate God for his Amendment Follow Peace we must with Them who fly as fast as we can follow it And to the end we may attain it we must endeavour at least to win them by all good means Such as is the not avenging our selves but giving place unto wrath feeding our Enemies when they are hungry and when they are thirsty giving them Drink For by so doing we shall heap saith the Apostle Coals of Fire upon their Heads Not that this can be spoken of any mischievous kind of charity For it is meant of nothing else but the Fire of Love And Love is fitly compar'd to Fire because it has both a purging and melting Faculty in its Nature The Metaphor is taken from the custom of the Founder who when he cannot melt his Metal by putting Coals of Fire under it does heap some Fire upon it too So we must heap the Fire of Love upon our Enemies Heads not to consume them in their Impenitence but to melt them into Repentance and change of Life At once to purifie the Dross and to mollifie the hardness with which their hearts are affected towards us But if at last our Malacticks are us'd in vain we must then indeed proceed to the severer Methods of Charity which is Charity never the less for being attended with severity A Rod being ordain'd for the Back of Fools who will not be wrought upon at all by the Spirit of Meekness 1 Cor. 4. ult When men are the worse for being pardon'd and even corrupt themselves with Goodness we must not be so over-cruel as to punish them with Impunity For God in great Mercy hath given us Magistrates to be his Ministers of wrath and his Executers of vengeance Nor are they liable unto any more noxious failing than that of bearing the Sword in vain Hereon is founded both the Lawfulness and the Necessity also of War upon some Occasions as being That without which Peace it self cannot be kept The Law of Nature and of Nations That of Moses and of Christ and the best mens Examples permit it to us As it were easie to evince were This a Time or Place for it And what I say of the Civil is just as true of the Spiritual Sword The highest Act of Christian charity that can be shown to the obdurate is to deliver them up to Satan for the Destruction of the Flesh because it is to this wholesom end That their Spirits may be sav'd in the Day of the Lord Jesus 1 Cor. 5. 5. Thus we see what is meant by Peace with All men how far forth it is extended and how it admits of a Limitation § 11. Another Objection may be rais'd from the Pronoun Which because it is in the Greek not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so may seem to relate rather to Holiness than to Peace As if our Duty towards God were a great Requisite to Salvation but not our Duty towards our Neighbour Whereas in Truth the very discharge of our Duty towards our Neighbour is one of the great and main Duties we owe to God Peace and Holiness are such Twin-Sisters as are not like the Tindaridae or Twins of Leda who after the manner of two Buckets whereof the one is going up and the other down did take their Turns in Heaven and Hell But like the Twins of Hippocrates or the two Friends in Valerius who neither could live nor die asunder He that follows not Peace does fly from Holiness or follows it onely to drive it from him Why then saith our Apostle not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without which Things nor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without which Peace but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without which Holiness no man living shall see the Lord § 12. The Answer is that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is of an aequivocal signification as being equally of the Masculine and Neuter Gender But some there are in the world of eminent Learning and Reputation who taking it up by the wrong handle have unhappily fastened upon a wrong signification and so have set up Holiness to the prejudice of Peace Meerly for want of consideration That the Relative Which in this place is the Neuter Gender and hath not any single word for its Antecedent but the whole Clause going before It is not in a divided sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without which Holiness but in sensu composito 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without which Following of Peace and Holiness united Whereby we are given to understand That there cannot be such a Thing as a Godly Rebel or Holy Boutifeu because the Subject excludes the Adjunct To say that such or such a Man is a most conscionable Schismatick or a religious exciter unto Sedition whilst he fights away his Conscience to win its Liberty and sacrifices Peaces to pretended Holiness is to affirm both Parts of a Contradiction He that is of an unpeaceable must needs be of an unholy Spirit For as Peace without Holiness is but Adherence unto a Faction so Holiness without Peace is but Hypocrisie They that are so superstitious as to strain at Gnats such as the Authorized Rites of Cross and Surpliss whilst they are also so prophane as to swallow Camels such as are the crying Sins of Schism and Sacrilege cannot well be call'd Followers but onely Persecuters of Peace
I need not say more Committing therefore what I have said to due and serious Consideration I shut up all with That Prayer which is the fittest to compleat and conclude the Sermon That what we have heard at this time with our outward Ears may by the powerfull Grace of God be so grafted inwardly in our Hearts as to bring forth in us the fruit of good Living to the Honour and Praise of his Name through Jesus Christ our Lord. To whom with the Father in the unity of the Spirit be Glory and Thanksgiving both now and for ever Amen THE APPENDIX § 1. OUr steddy Adherence or Assent to the Two last Articles of the Creed and indeed to the other Ten cannot possibly subsist without our Assent unto the First We cannot certainly believe that we shall rise from the Dead unless it be by believing that Christ is risen And as little can we believe that Christ is risen unless it be by believing first that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself This implies and presupposes the First Article of our Creed which is as well the Foundation as the Support of all the Rest But since the breaking loose of Hell in This last Age of a loathsome World we have met with such Enemies not onely to ours but to All Religion as from their wishing and woulding there were no God no Resurrection of the Body no life after Death no Day of Judgment have proceeded so far as to say and teach There is no God nor any one of those Things which have been regularly built upon This Foundation And if we suffer This Foundation to be either undermin'd or but shaken in us All the Fabrick of our Faith will fall to nothing in an Instant An Error here is like one in the first Concoction which cannot be mended in the second If we do not believe in God the first Article of our Creed we cannot choose but be Infidels in All that follow Nor are we onely to believe him as Belief is opposed unto a comprehensive knowledge But we must knowingly believe him as Belief is consistent with knowledge meerly Apprehensive And so as to say with as much Truth as S. Paul to Timothy every man for himself in whatsoever Temptations and Times of Trial For I know whom I have believed § 2. A Text which serves well for a double purpose to ascertain our Knowledge and to establish our Belief as well as to shew the just measure and use of Both in our Religion A Text accordingly to be consider'd not onely in its Relative but in its Absolute importance First the words in their Relation to Those that follow and go before them will be most easily understood by being paraphrased Thus. I am a Preacher and an Apostle and therefore now a Prisoner of Jesus Christ Even for this very cause of my being sent forth by the Will of God and made a Teacher of the Gentiles I suffer these Bonds and Persecutions of the Jews But I am not asham'd of my Bonds or Office I am not sorry for my Preaching though 't is the Cause of my Imprisonment For He on whom I have depended will never forsake me I am sure In His hands I can with chearfulness repose my Life by whom my Death will be a Door to my Resurrection For I have not believ'd I know not whom Nor do I nakedly believe whom I love and adore and rely upon but I perfectly Know whom I have believed and have a plentitude of Perswasion that He for whom I now suffer will never fail me on Him my Cares are all cast who careth for me With Him I have intrusted the whole Depositum of my Labours in the preaching of the Gospel and the Depositum of my Sufferings for having preach'd it And whatsoever I have intrusted or shall intrust to His keeping be it my Body or my Soul my Body in Peace or my Soul in Patience I am assur'd he is Able and am perswaded he is Willing to lay it up for me against That Day A Day expressed to us in Scripture by such Periphrases as These The Day wherein the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming Fire The day wherein God shall judge the Secrets of men by Jesus Christ The Day when all that are in the Grave shall hear his Voice and come forth The Day of Discrimination when He will make up his Jewels and a Book of Remembrance shall lie before him for them that feared the Lord and that thought upon his Name All my Concerns are left with Him who will keep them in safety against That Day Thus lies the Text in its relation to the Context § 3. But being consider'd in it self and without such Relation 't will be as easily understood by this other Paraphrase I know Him perfectly as to his Being whom I believe as to his Essence or whom as to his Essence I know in part onely I can demonstrate his Existence although I can but most firmly believe his Word For at one and the same time as also in one and the same respect I cannot know and believe him too because what I know I do more than believe or am past believing And what I do but believe I have not yet attained the knowledge of Knowledge and Belief do move in two distinct Spheres and That of Knowledge is so much higher than This of Faith that 't is the Perfection of a man's Faith wholly to perish and expire to be drown'd and swallow'd up into perfect Knowledge St. Paul expresseth his Believing by his knowing in part And the Top of his comfort does stand in This that when that which is perfect is come then that which is in part shall be done away Here we can but see darkly as through a glass but the time is now coming when we shall see face to face Here we onely can Believe the Three Subsistences of the Godhead in but one and the same Substance whereas in That Day of Revelation and Restitution we shall Know this great Mystery even as also we are Known Here we can but Believe the Resurrection of our Bodies but in the great Day of Recompence our Fruition and Experience will make us Know it We do not know more exactly that Five and Five do make Ten or that a part of any Dimension is unequal to the whole than we do Know and can demonstrate against the Enemies of a Deity the uncontroulable existence of the Deity we adore But This I say onely of God's Existence and of his Essence onely in part For in our deepest Contemplation of certain Mysteries in our Religion such as a Trinity of the Persons in the Vnity of the Godhead the Generation of the Second the Procession of the Third and yet the Coessentiality of Both-together with the First I say in This contemplation our Childish understandings become so froward they cannot be quieted but by
Villanies in the World without exception He is not season'd by the Holy but the Vnclean Spirit let his Orthodoxie of judgement as to some Fundamentals be what it can An honest Heathen is not so bad as a Christian Knave Thirdly The Spirit that is of God is the Spirit of Vnity and Love And therefore if any sort of men shall take upon them to be Reformers by making Schism by dissolving the Bond of Peace wherein the Vnity of the Spirit is to be kept and shall crumble Religion into as many small Parcells as the Caprices of Idle men shall have the liberty to suggest especially if they shall labour to separate Subjects from their Sovereign by absolving them from their Oaths of Christian Obedience and Fidelity or by instructing them to swear with a Design to be forsworn They are miss-led by That Spirit whose Name is Legion even the Spirit of Division That old and cunning Serpent which deceiveth the whole World Fourthly The Spirit that is of God is the Spirit of Meekness and of Order And therefore if any despise Dominion and speak evil of Dignities and in pretense of being the Meek ones who are by right of Promise to inherit the Earth demurely tread upon Crowns and Crosiers and love to be levelling with their Feet whatsoever according to God's special Providence does overtop them by Head and Shoulders especially if they presume to place the single Bishop of Rome above General Councils invest him with a Power to excommunicate Kings and subvert whole Kingdoms and make the People hope to Merit by the most prodigious Murthers They must be led by That Spirit which is called The Angel of the Bottomless Pit Abaddon and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Destroyer even the Spirit which is still working in the Children of Disobedience Fiftly The Spirit that is of God is the Spirit of Sincerity induing All whom He inhabits with an absolute Simplicity and Singleness of Heart And therefore They who do hold up their Left hand to God but their Right against their Governours having Godliness in their Profession but practical Atheism in their Lives hating Idols from the Teeth outwards but loving Sacriledge from the Heart crying down Superstition but preaching up the Creature-comforts flowing from Plunder which they call Providence declaring with zeal against the Prelates but ever voting up the Papacy of their Superintendents declaiming much against the Sectaries who are not of their Denomination but breaking down the Hedge of Discipline whereby the Herds are to be kept from God's Inclosure especially They who have invented the Art of Aequivocating and Cheating the Art of Swearing any thing safely by mental Exceptions and Reservations the Art of Couzenage by the Contract they call Mohatra and the like must needs be acted by that Spirit whom the Scripture has expressed by the Father of Lies even the Spirit of Hypocrisie That black Prince of Darkness which transforms himself with ease into an Angel of light Sixtly The Spirit that is of God is the Spirit of Knowledge and Wisedom and Vnderstanding And therefore if any man cites Scripture against the whole Tenor and Stream of Scripture and wanders into the wrong way even by That very Word which does direct him into the Right one especially if he levells the Canon of Scripture with the Apocrypha and makes the Pure Word of God to truckle humbly under Tradition whereby it becomes of none effect if men so learned and so acute and so sagacious as the Jesuites after all the heinous things they have done and taught are so far from discerning what Spirit they are of that they utterly mistake an Evil Spirit for a Good one a Spirit from Hell for one from Heaven the Spirit which reigns in the Court of Rome for the Spirit which guides in the Church of England if they can think it the Top of Piety to advance the Lord Jesus quite against the Lord Christ and make the Christian Religion the greatest Transgression of Itself which moves the Jansenists to call them The Antichristian Society if they can take it for the Comble of Christian Merit and Perfection to espouse and put in practice this Turkish Maxime that Religion is to be propagated where 't is possible by the Sword They must needs be possess'd by the Spirit of Slumber the Spirit of dead Sleep the God of this World which blindeth the mind for so the Devil is once call'd 2 Cor. 4. 4. What I have thus drawn out at length our Blessed Lord does wind up into This short Bottom Matth. 7. 20. Ye shall know them by their Fruits But the Fruits of That Spirit that is of God are reckon'd up by S. Paul to be such as These Love Joy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Meekness Goodness and the like And therefore They who in stead of loving Enemies do persecute and oppress the mystical Members of the same Body whereof Christ is the Head who lay the Cross of Christ Jesus on Christian Shoulders robbing one of a Living another of a Liberty a third of a Life and this for no other Crime than being constantly Conscientious and very real Friends to All because the Flatterers of None though able to injure or to oblige them must needs be managed by That carnal and unclean Spirit which makes them so fruitfull and so abounding in the works of the Flesh such as Hatred Variance Wrath Strife Seditions Heresies and the like § 8. Now if All these Particulars be laid together in our minds I suppose we have a Touchstone to Try the Spirits of Pretenders whether or no they are of God and such a Touchstone as needs not it self another Touchstone to be Try'd by But because the best Touchstone is nothing worth to such as know not how to use it we shall doe well to take notice of one Rule more in the using of it For considering how many Vices do too much border and confine upon several Vertues and how many Lies are more plausible to flesh and bloud than many Truths and hardly any thing can be so false but may have Colours and Probabilities to set it off being neatly laid on by men ingeniously wicked and that a multitude of Ignaro's do often swallow the grossest Errours presented to them in the Disguise of the greatest Truths by not distinguishing Words as they ought from Things and blending one thing with another and taking them down all at once without any masticating or chewing I say for This reason we must not pass our last Judgement upon Pretenders to the Spirit untill we have made our selves acquainted as well with their Habits as with their Acts as well with the main or general current of their Lives as with the meer conduct and carryings on of their Designs with the Means they make use of as well as with the End they pretend to aim at with the Building which is erected as well
easily he may and very many there are that do so as it never shall run out either at his Tongue 's or his Finger's end is no body's Enemy but his own is a regular Citizen and a good Subject living friendly with his Neighbours and in an uniform Obedience to his Superiors Whereas a Schismatick as he is such does also offend against Peace and Charity and cannot possibly keep his Schism unto himself but needs must hurt others with it because 't is publick in its own Nature and cannot be Schism unless it be so For he separates himself from the publick Worship affronts the Governors and scorns the Government of the Church cuts himself off from the Communion of the Body of Christ sets up Altar against Altar Dan and Bethel against Jerusalem and Sion sets up a Ministry of his own making against a Priesthood ordain'd by God abetts a Conventicle prohibited by God and Man against a Church set apart by the Laws of Both like Jeroboam downright whose Sin consisted in This especially that he made Israel to Sin Now an active Divider in and of the Church of God must needs be worse than any other who is but passively divided and cut off from her And to destroy a whole Society by subverting the whole Legislative power must needs be worse than to violate a particular Law And That which makes way for all the Haeresies in the world as well as for all the Immoralities of life which Schism does evidently do must needs be worse than any Haeresie which does onely make way for itself And so a Schismatick is the more impious and the more mischievous of the two Again a Schismatick is worse than a simple Haeretick as such not for this reason onely because a vitious Practice is naturally worse than a wrong Opinion though that is reason great enough but for this other reason also not so commonly observ'd as I wish it were because a Schismatick ipso facto is mostly an Haeretick into the Bargain For besides his renouncing the Ninth Article of the Creed that Form of sound words deliver'd to us by Christ's Apostles The holy Catholick Church and The Communion of Saints duly expounded and understood I say besides That He flatly despises and detests for 't is a little thing to say he disowns and disbelieves That principal Doctrin of the Gospel That Fundamental of Christianity That great Essential to All Religion that we must heartily submit to every Ordinance of Man and that as well for the Lord's sake as for our own nor onely for fear of Wrath but for Conscience sake § 5. Why I chuse to call This a principal Doctrin of the Gospel a Fundamental of Christianity and the great Essential to All Religion I seem to my self to have so many and great Reasons that if they were every-where urged and laid to heart especially by the Parties who are the least aware of them but most concern'd to take them in they might suffice to put an end to those numerous Schisms which now do threaten to put an end to our whole Religion The Doctrin of Obedience to humane Governours and Laws is certainly the aptest of any other next to that of our Obedience to God himself whereof this Doctrin is a most necessary part too to keep the unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace and to congregate into one Body the most disjoynted and scatter'd Members in Church and State A Doctrin laid for this purpose by God the Father from the Foundations of the World and that in the Law of the first Creation A Doctrin propagated by Moses as Taught of God to teach others A Doctrin perfected by Christ as by the Wisedom of the Father who pray'd his Followers might be one even as his Father and He were one Joh. 17. 11. which yet without Obedience to this very Doctrin can never be A Docctrin inculcated and inforced by God the Holy Ghost as by the Spirit of Love and Meekness of Peace and Vnion A Doctrin extended to All Authority upon Earth not onely Regal in the first place 1 Pet. 2. 13. but Ecclesiastical in the second Heb. 13. 17. To summe up all in a word There is not a Doctrin in all the Gospel either more earnestly or more assiduously either more plainly or more expresly prescribed to us and that under pain of Damnation too than that of our uniform Obedience to All that are over us in Authority I say to All not onely to the Best the Good and Gentle but as well to the worst and most froward Governours § 6. It is not onely most foolishly but most nefariously pretended that the Piety or Impiety the Religion or Irreligion of them that are over us in the Lord can either widen or contract our divine Obligation to strict Obedience For never was any incarnate Devil more incomparably impious than those Emperours of Rome Tiberius and Nero whom yet our Saviour and S. Paul commanded their Followers to obey and obey'd Themselves For Obedience to Magistrates being of Divine right strongly founded upon the Will and the Word of God and even a part of our Obedience to God Himself whilst it is paid to that Authority which God has commanded us to pay an Obedience to cannot possibly be due to the men as men or to the Good as they are Good but to the Magistrates or Masters reduplicativè as they are such 'T is due to the Governours as they are Governours and as the Ordinance of God let their Practices and Opinions be what they will § 7. 'T is true when our Governours are Vsurpers or being None do command us what God forbids There there lies an Exception to our Obedience due to God rather than Man But This Exception makes strongly for all I have hitherto said and that by virtue of the old Axiom Exceptio firmat Regulam in non exceptis So that by this Rule and Reason that when God and His Deputies do stand in competition for our Obedience God must have our whole Active and His Deputies our Passive Obedience onely It cannot but follow that when our Governours are rightfull and do onely command what God does no-where forbid or do onely forbid what God does no-where command us There we must obey God by obeying Man there being no other way of paying God our Obedience in such a case For There our Governours Command is the Command of God too There the very same Law which is immediately Humane is also mediately Divine Because we There are commanded by That Authority upon Earth which in the Old and New Testament God has commanded us to obey Nor is there any one Duty belonging to us as Men or Christians which God is pleas'd to make a stricter Provision for We are no more commanded to fear God than to honour the King nor are we more forbidden to worship Idols than to resist or disobey such as are over us in Authority § 8. This I do the
as if the holy Angels were not fit to be intrusted with such Temptations not onely Philo and Josephus but divers Fathers of the Church Justin Martyr Tertullian Clemens Alexandrinus and Lactantius have understood by the Sons of God who could not innocently gaze upon the Daughters of men Gen. 6. 2. Not the Potentates of the Earth but even the Angels of Heaven Now though I think with Theodoret and most of the ancient Commentators that the Fathers were in an Errour who so expounded yet it assures us of their Opinion how much Temptations are to be shun'd and how carefully we should fly the Occasions of them Igni cum Foeno non bene convenit said Martinian to a Beauty whom he had pull'd out of the Sea but would not trust himself with when she came to Land But more remarkable were the words of the pious Presbyter Vrsinus when a good Woman came to help him as he was giving up the Ghost one whom he lov'd too as a Sister but yet avoided as an Enemy Recede à me Mulier adhuc vivit Igniculus Paleam tolle As if he fear'd that That Stricture or Spark of life remaining in him might have grown into a Flame at the sight of Chaff § 19. Now since it cannot but be inferr'd from the whole Tenor of my Discourse That the way to become able to abstain from all evil is to abstain from all approach and appearance of it from all that does lead and allure us to it from all that has a Tendency and Byass towards it Nothing remains but that we labour in every Instance of Temptation and Ghostly danger if we are willing to use the means whereby our Abstinence may be completed to frustrate the Malice of the Devil to baffle the Arguments of the Flesh and to tread under our feet an insulting World even by carrying our selves wisely in all our ways and by keeping constant watch over all our Walkings and that we never suffer our selves either by stratagem or by force to be diverted or drawn aside from this saving Method until our well-meant Indeavours shall all expire into perfection our Contendings with the Flesh into Triumphs over it our rigid Abstinences from Evil into the ravishing Injoyments of all that 's Good our Temporary Lent into an Everlasting Jubile our short Self-denials into the Pleasures of Aeternity our Days of Mourning and Mortification into endless Fruitions of Bliss and Glory Which thou O God of thy Mercy vouchsafe unto us for the Glory of thy Name and for the Worthiness of thy Son To whom with thee O Father in the Unity of the Spirit be all Honour and Glory both now and forever Amen OF ABSTAINING IN GENERAL FROM Fleshly Lusts 1 PET. 2. 11. Dearly Beloved I beseech you as Strangers and Pilgrims abstain from fleshly Lusts which war against your Soul Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles that whereas they speak against you as evil Doers they may by your good works which they shall behold glorifie God in the day of Visitation § 1. SAint Peter as a good Builder a Spiritual Workman who needed not to be asham'd having prudently laid the first Foundation of his Discourse in the former Chapter to wit the Holy Spirit of God efficaciously working by his word And having erected thereupon the three grand Pillars of Christianity Faith Hope and Charity does straight proceed in this Chapter to superstruct on those Pillars by way of general Exhortation Which though particularly directed unto the Christians of the Dispersion in several Provinces of Asia yet 't was equally intended and is as applicable to Vs too on whom the ends of the World are come Now his general Exhortation is briefly This. First of all that we lay aside all kind of Malice and Hypocrisie and the malignity of the Tongue v. 1. Secondly That as Infants do suck the nourishment of their Bodies from the same Mother's Breast from whom they had newly receiv'd their Being so also We being regenerate by the good word of God and thereby reputed as new-born Babes should from the same word of God suck out a nourishment for our Souls and thereby grow unto perfection v. 2. This word as he calls by the name of milk so he commends it to our Palats as sweet and wholesom v. 3. After which he goes on with his Exhortation but steps aside from his Metaphor and addresseth himself to a new scheme of Rhetorick Calling Christ a Living-Stone v. 4. and the Members of Christ a Spiritual House v. 5. and proving Both out of Esa v. 6. Next he shews the opposition betwixt the Obedient and the Rebellious representing Jesus Christ as a support unto the former but to the later a Stone of stumbling and a Rock of offence v. 7 8. Then having said how God had taken us from out the men of this world and made us a chosen generation a royal Priesthood an holy Nation a peculiar People a People called out of darkness into his marvellous light v. 9 10. He here proceeds to exhort us with somewhat a greater degree of warmth that we behave our selves suitably to our Vocation Dearly beloved I beseech you as Strangers and Pilgrims abstain c. § 2. A very pertinent Exhortation to all the Duties of the Lent to Christian Purity and Strictness and to Abstinence from Enormities of every kind Abstain from Fleshly Lusts that is as S. Paul does explain S. Peter from Rioting and Drunkenness from Chambering and Wantonness from Strife and Envy from Malcontentedness and Sedition from Revengefulness and Rebellion from Schism and Haeresie For that These are all equally the Lusts of the Flesh or the Fleshly Lusts I shall necessarily shew in the proper Places of my Discourse The Exhortation taken in gross does consist of two Parts The material part of it is express'd in these words Abstain from Fleshly Lusts and have your Conversation honest The formal part of it in these Dearly beloved I beseech you Thus we see the Exhortation is usher'd in with an Intreaty and This with such a Compellation as shews an Earnestness of Affection in him that speaks His Exhortation is so important so perswasive his Intreaty and so meltingly obliging his Compellation that hardly any thing can be added to give an energy or weight to S. Peter's Preaching Though he desires no more of them than to have mercy upon themselves yet he begs for it as heartily as if he were begging for his Life Dearly beloved I beseech you I come unto you as a Petitioner that ye will not be so transported out of your Interest and your Wits as madly to ruin your selves for ever I make it my humble Supplication that ye will rather live happy to all Eternity If there is any thing in the World with which you are willing to oblige me do not wilfully run upon Swords and Halberts Seek not to dwell with devouring Fire Be not so foolish as to catch at everlasting Burnings But be of
have reason to be jealous of its Aspirings and to stand in some fear lest whilst he preached unto others He himself might become a Castaway § 20. Now we must go and do likewise For we expect the same Crown and are beset with the same Enemies by which if he was indanger'd much more are we And therefore if it was His way much more must it be Ours to abstain in good earnest from Fleshly Lusts by abstaining from the things by which they are nourished and upheld Intemperance is the Mother of all the rest or if not properly the Mother yet at least she is the Nurse as being evermore feeding and making provision for the Flesh and by consequence giving strength to its several Lusts And therefore striving for the Mastery let us be temperate in all things Let us add Fasting unto our Prayers and constant Watchfulness unto our Fasting and persevere in all Three till we have crucified the Flesh with the Affections and Lusts For since our Lusts are so restless as never ceasing to rebell we must be every whit as restless in reducing such Rebels to their Allegiance Nay it concerns us to be restless though they should possibly be at rest For as a Leopard or a Lion though sometimes gentle and debonaire are yet with reason kept close in Chains or Dungeons because they still retain the nature of salvage Beasts so Fleshly Lusts though very much tamer at one Season than at another do yet retain the whole nature of Fleshly Lusts and if they are not lock'd up in Chains or thrust down into a Dungeon we know not how soon they may rage against us However then our Fleshly Lusts may Seem to be at peace with us let us never be at peace with our Fleshly Lusts And though the vileness of our Enemies or the miseries of a Defeat the Honour and Gallantry of our Ingagement or the Divinity of our Support by the Grace of God and the Means of Grace should not be able of themselves to prevail upon us yet the additional consideration of the Immensity of our Reward should one would think beget within us the noblest courage and resolution We find them both in one Text and spoken both with one Breath and the later is an Inference which cannot but follow from the former That whosoever will but fight the good fight of Faith will not fail to lay hold on Eternal life And this the God of all Mercy prepare us for both for the Glory of his Grace and for the Worthiness of his Son unto whom with the Father in the unity of the Spirit be all Obedience and Thanksgiving for ever and ever Amen OF ABSTAINING In particular from DISOBEDIENCE TO AUTHORITY In things INDIFFERENT As from the worst and the most scandalous of all FLESHLY LUSTS in S. Peter's Judgment 1 PET. 2. 13. Submit your selves to every Ordinance of Man for the Lord's sake § 1. SAint Peter having exhorted us to abstain from Fleshly Lusts which war against the Soul and inforc'd his Exhortation with Five strong Reasons in the two next Verses before my Text straight gives an Instance in the most scandalous and the most damning piece of Carnality of all those sorts in general from which he exhorted us to abstain For what Connexion or Coherence can there be betwixt my present and former Text lying as close by one another as by S. Peter they could be laid unless it be that Disobedience to human Governours and Laws is of all Fleshly Lusts the most disgracefull to Christianity the most repugnant to the Gospel of Jesus Christ most incompatible with the Profession and the Salvation of a Christian That this is the meaning of S. Peter seems to be clear from the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 very significant in the Original however omitted in the Translation To stop the Mouths of those Enemies who speak against you as evil Doers says S. Peter to the Christians of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to whom he writes by your abstaining from Fleshly Lusts and by your unblameable Conversation among the Gentiles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be ye subjected and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be ye Therefore subjected and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to every human Creature that is to say to every Man who is a Magistrate created by God not by the People to be a Governour But still a Creature and a Man and Both together an human Creature wholly mortal as to his Person though wholly divine as to his Office Therefore to Him submit your selves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not for the Magistrates or the People's or your own sakes onely but first and chiefly for the Lord 's First because of the Lord's Precept Matth. 22. 21. Next because of the Lord's Example Matth. 17. 27. Thirdly because of the Lord 's Ordaining him Rom. 13. 1 2. Fourthly because He bears the Lord's Image and is the Lord's Deputy Lieutenant or Vicegerent upon Earth the Lord's Minister and Avenger Rom. 13. 4. Lastly because ye must love the Lord v. 5. and love the Lord ye cannot unless ye love the Lord's Surrogate and your love to Superiours is to be seen in your Obedience Again submit your selves without partiality 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the Apostle's word to every Ordinance of Man or to All the Lord's Surrogates without exception Not onely to the Supreme as sent by God's Providence and God's Commission but to subordinate Rulers also as sent by Commission from the Supreme Not to the Emperour onely Himself whether Claudius or Nero at the writing of this Epistle but to Proconsuls and Procurators both of Asia and Bithynia as sent by Caesar Yet not to Them against Him not to Furius Camillus Scribonianus against Claudius not to the Parliament against the King nor to the King against Himself not at all to his Authority against his Person nor in his Right to his Wrong as some Christians have plaid the Sophisters to the reproach of Christianity But to each in his order To the King as Supreme so it follows in the Text and to Governours as sent by Him Where the word as is very emphatical As and no otherwise than as by Him sent As and no otherwise than for His sake and on His accompt And so à quatenus ad omne optimè valet argumentum Submit your selves to All as sent by Him and submit your selves to None but so far forth as He sends them S. Peter's Logick is very plain and makes the Case very clear upon every side § 2. Of all the Arguments or Reasons which are producible for the inforcing S. Peter's Praecept here are two of concernment to Men in general and a Third for Believers or Christian People in particular Of the two former the first is taken from the Author and Assertor of All Authorities unto which Men as Men are here commanded to submit They must do it propter Dominum because The Lord hath Authorized human Authorities upon Earth and The Lord will
Nature and such as carried up S. Paul above the low sense of all his Sufferings 'T is no less than the Victory which overcometh the World No less than the Evidence of Things not seen no less than the Substance that is the confident Expectation of things hoped for It refresheth our drooping Spirits with unspeakable Comforts in the black and gloomy day of our greatest Trial when all the Comforters upon Earth are utterly unable to yield us comfort It fills us inwardly with Joy in the Holy Ghost Conveys unto us a full assurance that our Pardon is seal'd our Peace ratified that God is our Father and we His Children Gives us some Glimmerings and Fore-tasts of the Glory to be reveal'd It presentiates things future and prepossesseth us with the Injoyment of things invisible Reveals unto us by the secret and powerfull Whispers of God's Spirit the Beatifick and glorious Mansions prepared for us in His House Hereupon it does so place us above the Level of Temptations as to exempt us from the fear of whatsoever Men or Devils can do unto us Insomuch that what is intended by the Enemies of our Faith to make us sorry by This is wonderfully made to increase our Joy By This we are enabled to trust in God as Holy Job did although he kills us So that lifting up our heads and looking up unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our Faith we learn to love and to kiss his Rod and are so far from repining at his severest Dispensations that in regard unto the Joy that is set before us we can injoy the very Torments and scorn the shame of a Crucifixion In a word should I exemplifie all I have said concerning Faith by making a Narrative of Particulars as far as from Abel to Charles the First which were to prove by the Argument they call Induction the wonderfull Powers and Effects and glorious Benefits of Believing as well as of Knowing whom we believe I must have taken for my Text the whole Eleventh Chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews § 22. But because This would prove an Enterprize too long and tedious though not too difficult to be perform'd I shall conclude with some Directions for the securing of our Faith if at least we have any from slipping from us and for the enabling us to say with our Apostle in my Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we know whom we have trusted we Know whom we have Believed and are perswaded that He is able to keep that which we have committed unto Him against That Day § 23. If we find our selves wavering in the Belief of those Things whereof we have not a perfect knowledge however a perfect knowledge of That which is the Ground of the Things Believed and we have reason to superstruct the strongest Belief to be imagin'd upon so firm a Foundation as perfect Knowledge we may comfort our selves and re-inforce our Sick Faith by observing these following Rules First by reflecting on the importance of those known Words Lord I believe help Thou my unbelief Implying an unbelief in one does consist with belief in another measure Just as contrary Qualities often meet in one Subject in gradibus remissis although in gradibus intensis they never can Next by making that Confession and Prayer our own Lord we believe in a degree but with fears now and then and some dishonourable Faintings Nor of our selves can we do more but That and more by thy Help Help us therefore to believe without the least degree of doubting or distrust or diffidence Whatever is wanting in our Belief we pray thee pardon and repair and replenish in us We cannot acquire it by Art or Industry but we can humbly wrestle with thee as Jacob did for this Blessing by Prayer and Fasting And through the Grace which Thou hast given us We will never let thee go till thou hast bless'd us with a steady unshaken Faith Thirdly by considering that to be tempted however strongly is no Transgression But rather the more a man is tempted and to the staggering of his Faith the more victorious is his Faith when he does not yield Yield we do not whilst we dissent from our Waverings and hate the unsteadiness of our Assent and are heartily griev'd at its Haesitations and are piously carefull to make it steady and resolute in our Purposes to hold fast our Faith even in spite of those Doubtings we grapple with and strive to make it so much the stronger the more our Tempter attempts its overthrow by the Antiperistasis of Temptations We do not yield though we are buffeted both by Satan and the Flesh and the World we live in whilst we are obstinate in our purpose to serve the God whom we own with our Self-denials to serve him with the Denial of all the Rivals of his Religion our Wit our Reason our Erudition our Profit Pleasure or Reputation and to honour him with the obedience of every Faculty within us not onely with our Wills but our Vnderstandings whilst we make them stoop down when they cannot rise so high as to things above us and the rather to believe them if I may use Tertullian's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because Impossible For what is impossible to us to God is easie What to us is miraculous to Him is natural And therefore the Mysteries of our Religion to wit the Trinity Incarnation Resurrection and the like which to the misty Eye of Reason our Tempter would make to seem impossible do to the clearer Eye of Faith appear to be True so much the rather I say the rather in two respects in respect of our Tempter whose ends we frustrate by our Belief and in respect of the Things Themselves which do the better become Religion for being above the short Reach of our stunted Knowledge and which we are Therefore to believe because unable to comprehend them For were we able to comprehend them as we do many things below us This gross Absurdity would follow that what is now our Religion would be our Science Wherein our finite Vnderstandings would not humbly submit but proudly Triumph And it would be an hard thing to be Irreligious The Pelagians of old and our late Socinians do seem to forget the vast Distance and Disproportion betwixt the Faculties of Man and hidden Mysteries of God when they contend for a Sufficience in natural reason to receive the deep things of the Spirit of God For as God being a Spirit must for that very reason be worshipped in Spirit so the spiritual things of God must be spiritually discerned There must be Similitude and Proportion 'twixt Acts and Objects Lastly 't is matter of comfort to us and one of the means of reinforcing our wavering Faith that what does often seem to fail us in one regard may yet in another be ever with us for our support We may with the Father of the Faithfull the Faithfull Abraham believe in Hope against Hope For