of us by any measures but of the Commandment without and the heart and the conscience within but he never intended his Laws to be a snare to us or to entrap us with consequences and dark interpretations by large deductions and witty similitudes of faults but he requires of us a sincere heart and a hearty labour in the work of his Commandments he calls upon us to avoid all that which his Law plainly forbids and which our Consciences do condemn This is the general measure The particulars are briefly these 1. Every Christian is bound to arrive at that state that he have remaining in him no habit of any sin whatsoever Our old man must be crucified the body of sin must be destroyed he must no longer serve sin sin shall not have the dominion over you All these are the Apostles words that is plainly as I have already declared you must not be at that pass that though ye would avoid sin ye cannot For he that is so is a most perfect slave and Christs freed man cannot be so Nay he that loves sin and delights in it hath no liberty indeed but he hath more shew of it than he that obeys it against his will Libertatis servaveris umbram Si quicquid jubeare velis He that loves to be in the place is a less prisoner than he that is confined against his will 2. He that commits any one sin by choice and deliberation is an enemy to God and is under the dominion of the flesh In the case of deliberate sins one act does give the denomination he is an Adulterer that so much as once foully breaks the holy Laws of Marriage He that offends in one is guilty of all saith S. James S. Peters Denial and Davids Adultery had passed on to a fatal issue if the mercy of God and a great repentance had not interceded But they did so no more and so God restored them to Grace and Pardon And in this sense are the words of S. John 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he that does a sin is of the Devil and he that is born of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he does not commit a sin he chooses none he loves none he endures none talia quae non faciet bonae fidei spei Christianus they do no great sin and love no little one A sin chosen and deliberately done is as Tertullians expression is crimen devorà torium salutis it devours salvation For as there are some sins which can be done but once as a man can kill his Father but once or himself but once so in those things which can be repeated a perfect choice is equivalent to a habit it is the same in principle that a habit is in the product In short he is not a child of God that knowingly and deliberately chooses any thing that God hates 3. Every Christian ought to attain to such a state of life as that he never sin not only by a long deliberation but also not by passion I do not say that he is not a good Christian who by passion is suddenly surpriz'd and falls into folly but this I say that no passion ought to make him choose a sin For let the sin enter by anger or by desire it is all one if the consent be gain'd It is an ill sign if a man though on the sudden consents to a base action Thus far every good man is tied not only to endeavour but to prevail against his Sin 4. There is one step more which if it be not actually effected it must at least be greatly endeavoured and the event be left to God and that is that we strive for so great a dominion over our sins and lust as that we be not surprized on a sudden This indeed is a work of time and it is well if it be ever done but it must alwayes be endeavoured But in this particular even good men are sometimes unprosperous S. Epiphanius and S. Chrysostom grew once into choler and they past too far and lost more than their argument they lost their reason and they lost their patience and Epiphanius wished that S. Chrysostom might not die a Bishop and he in a peevish exchange wished that Epiphanius might never return to his Bishoprick when they had forgotten their foolish anger God remembred it and said Amen to both their cursed speakings Nay there is yet a greater example of humane frailty St. Paul and Barnabas were very holy persons but once in a heat they were both to blame they were peevish and parted company This was not very much but God was so displeased even for this little flye in their Box of Oyntment that their story sayes they never saw one anothers face again These earnest emissions and transportations of passion do sometime declare the weakness of good men but that even here we ought at least to endeavour to be more than Conquerors appears in this because God allows it not and by punishing such follies does manifest that he intends that we should get victory over our sudden passions as well as our natural lusts And so I have done with the third inquiry in what degree God expects our innocence and now I briefly come to the last particular which will make all the rest practicable I am now to tell you how all this can be effected and how we shall get free from the power and dominion of our sins 4. The first great instruments is Faith He that hath Faith like a grain of Mustard-seed can remove Mountains the Mountains of sin shall fall flat at the feet of the Faithful man and shall be removed into the sea the sea of Christs blood and penitential waters Faith overcometh the World saith S. John and walk in the spirit and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh there are two of our Enemies gone the world and the flesh by Faith and the Spirit by the Spirit of Faith and as for the Devil put on the shield of Faith and resist the Devil and he will flee from you saith the Apostle and the powers of sin seem insuperable to none but to them that have not Faith we do not believe that God intends we should do what he seems to require of us or else we think that though Gods grace abounds yet sin must superabound expresly against the saying of S. Paul or else we think that the evil spirit is stronger than the good Spirit of God Hear what St. John saith My little children ye are of God and have overcome the evil one for the spirit that is in you is greater than that which is in the world Believest thou this If you do I shall tell you what may be the event of it When the Father of the boy possessed with the Devil told his sad story to Christ he said Master if thou canst do any thing I pray help me Christ answered him If thou canst believe all things are possible to him that believeth N. B. And
c. Since it is intended that from the Bishop grace should be diffused amongst all the people there is not in the world a greater indecency than a holy office ministred by an unholy person and no greater injury to the people than that of the blessings which God sends to them by the ministeries Evangelical they should be cheated and defrauded by a wicked Steward And therefore it was an excellent Prayer which to this very purpose was by the Son of Sirach made in behalf of the High-Priests the Sons of Aaron God give you wisdom in you heart to judge his people in Righteousness that their good things be not abolished and that their glory may endure for ever 4. All the Offices Ecclesiastical alwayes were and ought to be conducted by the Episcopal Order as is evident in the universal Doctrine and Practice of the Primitive Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is the 40th Canon of the Apostles Let the Presbyters and Deacons do nothing without leave of the Bishop but that cafe is known The consequent of this consideration is no other than the admonition in my Text We are Stewards of the manifold grace of God and dispensers of the mysteries of the Kingdom and it is required of Stewards that they be found faithful that we preach the word of God in season and out of season that we rebuke and exhort admonish and correct for these God calls Pastores Secundùm cor meum Pastors according to his own heart which feed the people with knowledge and understanding but they must also comfort the afflicted and bind up the broken heart minister the Sacraments with great diligence and righteous measures and abundant charity alwayes having in mind those passionate words of Christ of S. Peter If thou lovest me feed my sheep if thou hast any love to me feed my lambs And let us remember this also that nothing can enforce the people to obey their Bishops as they ought but our doing that duty and charity to them which God requires There is reason in these words of S. Chrysostom It is necessary that the Church should adhere to their Bishop as the body to the head as plants to their roots as rivers to their springs as Children to their Fathers as Disciples to their Masters These similitudes express not only the relation and dependency but they tell us the reason of the Duty The Head gives light and reason to conduct the Body the Roots give nourishment to the Plants and the Springs perpetual emanation of Waters to the Channels Fathers teach and feed their Children and Disciples receive wise Instructions from their Masters and if we be all this to the People they will be all that to us and Wisdom will compel them to submit and our Humility will teach them Obedience and our Charity will invite their compliance our good example will provoke them to good works and our meekness will melt them into softness and flexibility For all the Lords People are Populus voluntarius a free and willing people and we who cannot compel their bodies must thus constrain their Souls by inviting their Wills by convincing their Understandings by the beauty of fair example the efficacy and holiness and the demonstrations of the Spirit This is experimentum ejus qui in nobis loquitur Christus The experiment of Christ that speaketh in us For to this purpose those are excellent words which St. Paul spake Remember them who have the rule over you whose faith follow considering the end of their conversation There lies the demonstration and those Prelates who teach good life whose Sermons are the measures of Christ and whose Life is a copy of their Sermons these must be followed and surely these will for these are burning and shining Lights but if we hold forth false fires and by the amusement of evil example call the Vessels that sail upon a dangerous Sea to come upon a Rock or an iron Shore instead of a safe Harbour we cause them to make shipwreck of their precious Faith and to perish in the deceitful and unstable water Vox operum fortiùs sonat quà m verborum A good Life is the strongest argument that your Faith is good and a gentle voice will be sooner entertained than a voice of thunder but the greatest eloquence in the world is meek spirit and a liberal hand these are the two Pastoral Staves the Prophet speaks of nognam hovelim beauty and bands he that hath the staff of the beauty of holiness the ornament of fair example he hath also the staff of bands atque in funiculis Adam trahet eos in vinculis charitatis as the Prophet Hosea's expression is he shall draw the people after him by the cords of a man by the bands of a holy charity But if against all these demonstrations any man will be refractory we have instead of a Staff an Apostolical Rod which is the last and latest remedy and either brings to repentance or consigns to ruine and reprobation If there were any time remaining I could reckon that the Episcopal Order is the Principle of Unity in the Church and we see it is so by the innumerable Sects that sprang up when Episcopacy was persecuted I could add how that Bishops were the cause that S. John wrote his Gospel that the Christian Faith was for 300 years together bravely defended by the Sufferings the Prisons and Flames the Life and Death of Bishop as the principal Combatants that the Fathers of the Church whose Writings are held in so great veneration in all the Christian World were almost all of them Bishops I could add That the Reformation of Religion in England was principally by the Preachings and the Disputings the Writings and the Martyrdom of Bishops That Bishops have ever since been the greatest defensatives against Popery That England and Ireland were governed by Bishops ever since they were Christian and under their Conduct have for so many Ages enjoyed all the blessings of the Gospel I could add also That Episcopacy is the great stabiliment of Monarchy but of this we are convinced by a sad and too dear bought Experience I could therefore instead of it say That Episcopacy is the great ornament of Religion That as it rescues the Clergy from contempt so it is the greatest preservative of the Peoples Liberty from Ecclesiastick Tyranny on one hand the Gentry being little better than Servants while they live under the Presbytery and Anarchy and Licentiousness on the other That it endears Obedience and is subject to the Laws of Princes and is wholly ordained for the good of Mankind and the benefit of Souls But I cannot stay to number all the Blessings which have entered into the World at this door I only remark these because they describe unto us the Bishops Imployment which is to be busie in the service of Souls to do good in all capacities to serve every mans need to promote all publick benefits to
Angel but as God himself For it is the power of God in the hand of a man and he that resists resists God's Ordinance And I pray remember that there is not only no power greater than God's but there is no other for all Power is his The consequent of this is plain enough I need say no more of it It is all one to us who commands God or God's Vicegerent This was the first thing to be observed Secondly there can be but two things in the world required to make Obedience necessary the greatness of the Authority and the worthiness of the Thing In the first you see the case can have no difference because the thing it self is but one There is but one Authority in the world and that is God's as there is but one Sun whose light is diffused into all Kingdoms But is there not great difference in the Thing commanded Yes certainly there is some but nothing to warrant disobedience for whatever the thing be it may be commanded by man if it be not countermanded by God For 1. It is not required that every thing commanded should of it self be necessary for God himself oftentimes commands things which have in them no other excellency than that of Obedience What made Abraham the friend of God and what made his offer to kill his Son to be so pleasing to God It had been naturally no very great good to cut the throat of a little child but only that it was Obedience What excellency was there in the journeys of the Patriarchs from Mesopotamia to Syria from the Land of Canaan into Aegypt and what thanks could the sons of Israel deserve that they sate still upon the seventh day of the week and how can a man be dearer unto God by keeping of a Feast or building of a Booth or going to Jerusalem or cutting off the foreskin of a Boy or washing their hands and garments in fair water There was nothing in these things but the Obedience And when our blessed Lord himself came to his Servant to take of him the Baptism of Repentance alas he could take nothing but the water and the ceremony for as Tertullian observes he was nullius poenitentiae debitor he was indeed a just person and needed no repentance but even so it became him to fulfil all righteousness but yet even then it was that the Holy Spirit did descend upon his holy head and crowned that Obedience though it were but a Ceremony Obedience you see may be necessary when the Law is not so For in these cases God's Son and God's Servants did obey in things which were made good only by the Commandment and if we do so in the Instances of humane Laws there is nothing to be said against it but that what was not of it self necessary is made so by the Authority of the Commander and the force of the Commandment But there is more in it than so For 2. We pretend to be willing to obey even in things naturally not necessary if a divine command does interpose but if it be only a commandment of man and the thing be not necessary of it self then we desire to be excused But will we do nothing else We our selves will do many things that God hath not commanded and may not our Superiors command us in many cases to do what we may lawfully do without a commandment Can we become a Law unto our selves and cannot the word and power of our Superiors also become a Law unto us hath God given more to a private than to a publick hand But consider the ill consequents of this fond opinion Are all the practices of Geneva or Scotland recorded in the word of God are the triffling Ceremonies of their publick Penance recorded in the four Gospels are all the rules of decency and all things that are of good report and all the measures of Prudence and the laws of peace and War and the Customs of the Churches of God and the lines of publick honesty are all these described to us by the Laws of God If they be let us see and read them that we may have an end to all questions and minute cases of Conscience but if they be not and yet by the Word of God these are bound upon us in general and no otherwise then it follows that the particulars of all these which may be infinite and are innumerable yet may be the matter of humane Laws and then are bound upon us by the power of God put into the hands of man The consequent is this that whatsoever is commanded by our Superiors according to the will of God or whatsoever is not against it is of necessity to be obeyed 3. But what if our Princes or our Prelates command things against the Word of God what then Why nothing then but that we must obey God and not man there 's no dispute of that But what then again Why therefore sayes the Papist I will not obey the Protestant Kings because against the Word of God they command me to come to Church where Heresie is preached and I will not acknowledge the Bishops saith the Presbyterian because they are against the Discipline and Scepter of Jesus Christ and the Independent hates Parochial meetings and is wholly for a gathered Church and supposes this to be the practice Apostolical and I will not bring my Child to Baptism saith the Anabaptist because God calls none but Believers to that Sacrament and I will acknowledge no Clergy no Lord no Master saith the Quaker because Christ commands us to call no man Master on the earth and be not called of men Rabbi And if you call upon these men to obey the Authority God had set over them they tell you with one voice with all their hearts as far as the Word of God will give them leave but God is to be obeyed and not man and therefore if you put the Laws in execution against them they will obey you passively because you are stronger and so long as they know it they will not stir against you but they in the mean time are little less than Martyrs and you no better than Persecutors What shall we do now for here is evidently a great heap of disorder they all confess that Authority must be obeyed but when you come to the tryal none of them all will do it and they think they are not bound but because their Opinions being contrary cannot all be right and it may be none of them are it is certain that all this while Authority is infinitely wronged and prejudiced amongst them when all phantastick Opinions shall be accounted a sufficient reason to despise it I hope the Presbyterian will join with the Protestant and say that the Papist and the Socinian and the Independent and the Anabaptist and the Quaker are guilty of Rebellion and Disobedience for all their pretence of the Word of God to be on their side and I am more sure that all these will join
he runs to commit his sin with as certain an event and resolution as if he knew no Argument against it These notices of things terrible and true pass through his Understanding as an Eagle through the Air as long as her flight lasted the air was shaken but there remains no path behind her Now since at the same time we see other persons not so learned it may be not so much versed in Scriptures yet they say a thing is good and lay hold of it they believe glorious things of Heaven and they live accordingly as men that believe themselves half a word is enough to make them understand a nod is a sufficient reproof the crowing of a Cock the singing of a Lark the dawning of the day and the washing their hands are to them competent memorials of Religion and warnings of their duty What is the reason of this difference They both read the Scriptures they read and hear the same Sermons they have capable Understandings they both believe what they hear and what they read and yet the event is vastly different The reason is that which I am now speaking of the one understands by one Principle the other by another the one understands by Nature and the other by Grace the one by Humane Learning and the other by Divine the one reads the Scriptures without and the other within the one understands as a Son of Man the other as a Son of God the one perceives by the proportions of the world and the other by the measures of the Spirit the one understands by Reason and the other by Love and therefore he does not only understand the Sermons of the Spirit and perceives their meaning but he pierces deeper and knows the meaning of that meaning that is the secret of the Spirit that which is spiritually discerned that which gives life to the Proposition and activity to the Soul And the reason is because he hath a Divine Principle within him and a new Understanding that is plainly he hath Love and that 's more than Knowledge as was rarely well observed by S. Paul Knowledge puffeth up but Charity edifieth that is Charity makes the best Scholars No Sermons can edifie you no Scriptures can build you up a holy Building to God unless the Love of God be in your hearts and purifie your Souls from all filthiness of the Flesh and Spirit But so it is in the regions of Stars where a vast body of Fire is so divided by excentrick motions that it looks as if Nature had parted them into Orbs and round shells of plain and purest materials But where the cause is simple and the matter without variety the motions must be uniform and in Heaven we should either espy no motion or no variety But God who designed the Heavens to be the causes of all changes and motions here below hath placed his Angels in their houses of light and given to every one of his appointed Officers a portion of the fiery matter to circumagitate and roll and now the wonder ceases for if it be enquired why this part of the fire runs Eastward and the other to the South they being both indifferent to either it is because an Angel of God sits in the Centre and makes the same matter turn not by the bent of its own mobility and inclination but in order to the needs of Man and the great purposes of God And so it is in the Understandings of Men when they all receive the same Notions and are taught by the same Master and give full consent to all the Propositions and can of themselves have nothing to distinguish them in the events it is because God has sent his Divine Spirit and kindles a new fire and creates a braver capacity and applies the Actives to the Passives and blesses their operation For there is in the heart of man such a dead sea and an indisposition to holy flames like as in the cold Rivers in the North so as the fires will not burn them and the Sun it self will never warm them till Gods holy Spirit does from the Temple of the New Jerusalem bring a holy flame and make it shine and burn The Natural man saith the holy Apostle cannot preceive the things of the Spirit they are foolishness unto him for they are spiritually discerned For he that discourses of things by the measures of sense thinks nothing good but that which is delicious to the palate or pleases the brutish part of Man and therefore while he estimates the secrets of Religion by such measures they must needs seem as insipid as Cork or the uncondited Mushrom for they have nothing at all of that in their constitution A voluptuous person is like the Dogs of Sicily so fill'd with the deliciousness of Plants that grow in every furrow and hedge that they can never keep the scent of their Game 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said St. Chrysostom The fire and water can never mingle so neither can sensuality and the watchfulness and wise discerning of the Spirit Pilato interroganti de veritate Christus non respondit When the wicked Governour asked of Christ concerning Truth Christ gave him no answer He was not fit to hear it He therefore who so understands the Words of God that he not only believes but loves the Proposition he who consents with all his heart and being convinc'd of the truth does also apprehend the necessity and obeys the precept and delights in the discovery and lays his hand upon his heart and reduces the notices of things to the practice of duty he who dares trust his proposition and drives it on to the utmost issue resolving to go after it whithersoever it can invite him this Man walks in the Spirit at least thus far he is gone towards it his Understanding is brought in obsequium Christi into the obedience of Christ. This is a loving God with all our mind and whatever goes less than this is but Memory and not Understanding or else such notice of things by which a man is neither the wiser nor the better 3. Sometimes God gives to his choicest his most elect and precious Servants a knowledge even of secret things which he communicates not to others We finde it greatly remark'd in the case of Abraham Gen. 18. 17. And the Lord said Shall I hide from Abraham that thing that I do Why not from Abraham God tells us ver 19. For I know him that he will command his Children and his Houshold after him and they shall keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment And though this be irregular and infrequent yet it is a reward of their piety and the proper increase also of the spiritual man We find this spoken by God to Daniel and promised to be the lot of the righteous man in the days of the Messias Dan. 12. 10. Many shall be purified and made white and tryed but the wicked shall do wickedly and what then None of
which true wisdom consists Holiness which is the best wisdom is the surest way of understanding them And this 1. Is effected by Holiness as a proper and natural instrument for naturally every thing is best discerned by its proper light and congenial instrument 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For as the eye sees visible objects and the understanding perceives the Intellectual so does the Spirit the things of the Spirit The natural man saith S. Paul knows not the things of God for they are Spiritually discerned that is they are discovered by a proper light and concerning these things an unsanctified man discourses pitifully with an imperfect Idea as a blind man does of Light and Colours which he never saw A good man though unlearned in secular notices is like the windows of the Temple narrow without and broad within he sees not so much of what profits not abroad but whatsoever is within and concerns Religion and the glorifications of God that he sees with a broad inspection But all humane learning without God is but blindness and ignorant folly But when it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 righteousness dipt in the wells of Truth it is like an eye of Gold in a rich Garment or like the light of Heaven it shews it self by its own splendor What Learning is it to discourse of the Philosophy of the Sacrament if you do not feel the vertue of it and the man that can with eloquence and subtlety discourse of the instrumental efficacy of Baptismal waters talks ignorantly in respect of him who hath the answer of a good Conscience within and is cleansed by the purifications of the Spirit If the Question concern any thing that can perfect a man and make him happy all that is the proper knowledge and notice of the good man How can a wicked man understand the purities of the heart and how can an evil and unworthy Communicant tell what it is to have received Christ by Faith to dwell with him to be united to him to receive him in his heart The good man only understands that the one sees the colour and the other feels the substance the one discourses of the Sacrament and the other receives Christ the one discourses for or against Transubstantiation but the good man feels himself to be changed and so joined to Christ that he only understands the true sense of Transubstantiation while he becomes to Christ bone of his bone flesh of his flesh and of the same Spirit with his Lord. We talk much of Reformation and blessed be God once we have felt the good of it But of late we have smarted under the name and pretension The Woman that lost her Groat everrit domum not evertit she swept the house she did not turn the house out of doors That was but an ill Reformation that untiled the Roof and broke the Walls and was digging down the Foundation Now among all the pretensions of Reformation who can tell better what is and what is not true Reformation than he that is truly Reformed himself He knows what pleases God and can best tell by what instruments he is reconciled The mouth of the just bringeth forth wisdom and the lips of the righteous know what is acceptable saith Solomon He cannot be cousened by names of things and feels that Reformation to be Imposture that is Sacrilegious himself is humble and obedient and therefore knows that is not Truth that perswades to Schism and Disobedience and most of the Questions of Christendom are such which either are good for nothing and therefore to be laid aside or if they be complicated with action and are ministeries of practice no man can judge them so well as the spiritual man That which best pleases God that which does good to our Neighbour that which teaches sobriety that which combines with Government that which speaks honour of God and does him honour that only is Truth Holiness therefore is a proper and natural instrument of Divine knowledge and must needs be the best way of instruction in the Questions of Christendom because in the most of them a Duty is complicated with the Proposition No man that intends to live holily can ever suffer any pretences of Religion to be made to teach him to fight against his King And when the men of Geneva turned their Bishop out of doors they might easily have considered that the same person was their Prince too and that must needs be a strange Religion that rose up against Moses and Aaron at the same time but that hath been the method ever since There was no Church till then was ever governed without an Apostle or a Bishop and since then they who go from their Bishop have said very often to their King too Nolumus hunc regnare and when we see men pretending Religion and yet refuse to own the Kings Supremacy they may upon the stock of holiness easily reprove their own folly by considering that such recusancy does introduce into our Churches the very worst the most intollerable parts of Popery For perfect submission to Kings is the glory of the Protestant Cause and really the reproveable Doctrines of the Church of Rome are by nothing so much confuted as that they destroy good life by consequent and evident deduction as by an Induction of particulars were easie to make apparent if this were the proper season for it 2. Holiness is not only an advantage to the learning all wisdom and holiness but for the discerning that which is wise and holy from what is trifling and useless and contentious and to one of these heads all Questions will return and therefore in all from Holiness we have the best Instructions And this brings me to the next Particle of the general Consideration For that which we are taught by the holy Spirit of God this new nature this vital principle within us it is that which is worth our learning not vain and empty idle and insignificant notions in which when you have laboured till your eyes are fixed in their Orbs and your flesh unfixed from its bones you are no better and no wiser If the Spirit of God be your Teacher he will teach you such truths as will make you know and love God and become like to him and enjoy him for ever by passing from similitude to union and eternal fruition But what are you the better if any man should pretend to teach you whether every Angel makes a species and what is the individuation of the Soul in the state of separation what are you the wiser if you should study and find out what place Adam should for ever have lived in if he had not fallen and what is any man the more learned if he hears the disputes whether Adam should have multiplyed Children in the state of Innocence and what would have been the event of things if one Child had been born before his Fathers sin Too many Scholars have lived upon Air and empty notions for many